KL Week in Review: Week 18 (also some transactions)

BREAKING NEWS: The Patrik Stefans are no longer in 12th place.

They are in 13th, which is the first time in weeks they have been in any other spot but 12.

There are plenty of other observations that could be made, but really, let's get right to the two recent-ish transactions. There are a couple new sheriffs in town, and they're at the helm of the Teeyotes and the Winter Claassics. 

Jan 16 2014
The Winter Claassics send Loui Eriksson, Brian Gionta and a 2015 1st round draft pick
to the
WBS Parkers for Patrick Marleau, Saku Koivu and a 2015 5th round draft pick.

The 5th place Winter Claassics can taste the money spot and are willing to pay to get there. Marleau is on the back side of his career but is playing PPG hockey. The WBS Parkers did well to get value for him now as there is no telling when his game could nosedive. 

Great trade all around and I know at least one top 4 GM is pissed at himself for not kicking the tires on Marleau earlier. With a few new faces entering the race this could be a very interesting trade deadline.

Jan 18 2014
Not to be outdone, the surging Teeyotes (seriously, 44 points this week to lead the league in points both on the week and the month) drop Kris Russell and add Jason Demers.

Demers has 24 points as a defenceman and would be on most teams scoring rosters. Russell, on the other hand, has been hurt. Even if both players were equal, going for the guy playing on the Sharks over the guy playing for the Flames is always a good bet. 

KL Week in Review: Week 16 (plus some transactions)

16 weeks in and things are starting to get a little interesting again:

Notes for the week:

• The G-Phil's Flyers hold on 1st place is increasingly tenuous as both the Fylanders and Micahleks continue to close the gap. 
• The Micahleks have had a huge week with a league-leading 44 points, 11 of which came last night
• The Powder Rangers continue to cling to 4th place - remarkably, though, the Winter Claassics were in 4th place for portions of the last week
• The Los Amjawors Kings have slowed down somewhat but remain a viable playoff team, much to the surprise of early season prognosticators
• The Patrik Stefans are really, really good at holding 12th place. 
• The Schizzarks teased the bottom of the league last week but have managed to pull themselves up to a comparatively respectable 15th place. 

Injury notes :

The Winter Claassics are, remarkably, the only 100% healthy team in the league right now. There are some key injuries to a lot of teams that may result in some shuffling in the standings over the next week or two:

• G-Phil's Flyers - Mike Babcock says not to expect Pavel Datsyuk back "any time soon". With both the Fylanders and Micahleks coming fast, 1st place is very much up for grabs
• Milan Micahleks - Ryan Getzlaf isn't broken but his return date is unknown. The Micahleks expect to win, but these injuries are letting the Fylanders catch up.
• Teeyotes - Standout goaltender Ben Bishop has a sprained wrist. He is experimenting with different taping strategies but his return date is unknown. The Teeyotes are 9 points from a money spot but only 8 points from 9th place - these are critical lost points.
• Mackhawks - Johan Franzen (22 points in 30 games) has been a steady producer for the Mackhawks, but is at least a week or more away from returning from his concussion. The Mackhawks need their depth to hold 8th.
• Moilers - Luongo, Eric Staal, and Patrik Elias are all day-to-day with no real timelines for their return. Lengthy absences from these players could spell doom for the Moiler's playoff chances
• Dicklas Lidstroms - injuries to Koivu and Alex Steen are hurting the Lidstroms playoff chances. Gaborik's injuries woes this season have already started the Lidstroms off on the wrong foot. Word is these guys may even be ready in time for the Olympics.
• Patrik Stefans - Both Couture and Galchenyuk - key young contributors - are out with hand injuries. Both are weeks away from returning.
• Schizzarks - An MCL injury to Parenteau and a foot injury to Parise have been a significant factor in the Schizzark's precipitous fall to the bottom of the league. Neither player is skating and both face lengthy recoveries. 
• WBS Parkers - Evander Kane is expected back shortly, but stunning rookie Thomas Hertl (a possible cornerstone forward for the expansion Parkers) is likely done for the season. The team has not said as much, but estimate as long as 9 months for recovery. There is no guarantee he will come back in the same form either - rough break for this team. 

Transactions:

There have been a few transactions over the last while. 

Jan-2-14
Moilers drop Lee Stempniak and add Andrew Cogliano.

Quickie analysis: Cogliano sucks less than Stempniak. Great mid-season pickup.

Jan-2-14
Patrik Stefans drop Ondrej Pavelec and add Anton Khudobin

Quickie analysis: System's spreadsheets have finally pumped out a winner (why there is a heavy unheralded Soviet bias in System's system is beyond me). Khudobin has filled in admirably for the injured Cam Ward, posting a 6-1-0 with a .936 save percentage this season.

Jan-5-14 - Trade

Joshfrey Krupuls send Joffrey Lupul and a 2014 7th round draft pick to the


Fylanders for Dustin Penner and a 2014 3rd round draft pick

Quickie analysis: The Fylanders dump slumping Penner for (surprise surprise) a Maple Leaf. Lupul is the better player and the Fylanders got him cheap. Headscratcher for the Krupuls but maybe they think Penner's time in the press box will jumpstart his production.

Jan-8-14 - Trade
Quebec Rordiques send Andrew Ladd and Antoine Vermette to the
Los Amjawors Kings for Mikael Grigorenko and Curtis Glencross

Quickie analysis: The Kings can taste a playoff spot and maybe even a money spot. They need depth scoring and got it in Ladd and Vermette. The price was promising youngster Grigorenko. Interestingly, Grigorenko has refused to report to the Q and his NHL future is in question, but his potential is huge. We'll have to wait to see what happens to declare a winner. 

KL Week in Review - Week 13 (plus a couple transactions)

Not a heck of a lot of action in the NHL over the past week owing to the Xmas break:

Big weeks from the Micahleks and the Fylanders have started to close the gap on 1st place. 

As well, the race for that final money spot is as tight as its ever been, with only 11 points separating 8th and 4th place.

On the other end, both the Schizzarks and the Stefans remain in free-fall with the two worst weeks in the league (11 and 15 points respectively. The Schizzarks are actually on pace to end up in last place by the end of next week, with the Stefans following soon thereafter.

Let's just all take a moment and appreciate that we are not the Mackhawks. I'm not sure I've seen 6 injuries on a roster before - and these are key players:

Transactions

A couple minor Xmas transactions:

Dec-23-13
The Schizzarks drop Matt Donovan and add Andy Greene

Dec-29-13
The Mackhawks drop Pascal Dupuis and (re)add Wayne Simmonds

Interesting note: the Dicklas Lidstroms are the only team to have not used or traded a FA add/drop.

Transaction

A minor free-agent add/drop to announce:

Dec-04-2013
The Moilers drop Francois Beauchemin and add Niklas Hjalmarsson

The good: Beauchemin has been disappointing thus far (and is currently hurt), with 6 points since the start of the season. Hjalmarsson, on the other hand, looks poised to smash his previous best (17 points) with 13 points so far.

This provides the Moilers with some good depth on the back end as a bit of a gap develops between 8th and 9th. 

The bad: It serious took me like 8 tries to get these guys names right. Could the Moilers have picked a harder pair of names to spell?

Transaction

Two related transactions to announce:

 

The Fylanders send Kimmo Timonen + a 2nd round pick in 2014 

To the Quebec Rordiques for Dan Boyle + a 7th round pick in 2014 + FA add/drop

 

Condition:  Boyle must OUTSCORE Timonen the rest of the way otherwise the 7th turns into a 4th.

 

Then the Fylanders:

Add Colton Orr and drop Sean Monahan

Add Sean Monahan and drop Brent Burns

Add Brent Burns and drop Colton Orr (using their newly acquired FA add/drop).

Conditional trades are pains in my ass and don't get commentary.

Transactions

A couple minor transactions to report:

Nov-15-2013
The Wilkes-Benham/Scranton Parkers add Danny Dekeyser and drop Matt Irwin

Nov-19-2013
The Teeyotes add Kris Russell and drop Marc Staal

Danny Dekeyser has 9 points in 21 games. Matt Irwin has been a benchwarmer for parts of this season, with 3 points in 14 games.  

Kris Russell as 11 points in 21 games. Marc Staal has 3 points in 20. 

These analyses don't always write themselves, but sometimes they totally do.

STAMKOS MOVES

... to the bottom of the Powder Rangers roster. 

Two separate but related deals today:

The Powder Rangers trade their 2014 2nd round pick to the Joshfrey Krupuls for their two remaining FA add/drops + 2014 5th round pick.

Then: 

The Powder Rangers drop Stamkos and add Carl Hagelin.
The Powder Rangers drop Stalberg and add Stamkos.

Winners: Well, the Krusells got a 3 round bump at the draft for free, since the FA list is pretty slim at this time of the year. The Powder Rangers have replaced Stamkos with Carl Hagelin, so it is difficult to call that a "win" in the conventional sense, but they will probably stay in the hunt for at least a playoff spot. Hagelin has 8 points in 8 games and may well stay on the top line on Nash's return so there is some hope there. Also, with one of the deepest forward corps in the league, the Powder Rangers still have some potential trading juice to take a run for the top if they can find any sellers.

Losers: KL Headquarters is all about reaction gifs right now, so everyone out there who had been salivating at the prospect of trading for Stamkos:

  

Transactions

Three transactions to announce:

2013-Nov-6
The Milan Micahleks add Charlie Coyle and drop Matt Frattin

Frattin's 4 points in 15 games weren't going to endear him to the Micahlek's GM in any event, but Charlie Coyle only has 2. Coyle, however, is an premiere prospect.


This one is a little different as it takes advantage of a weird wrinkle in the rules (the same wrinkle that allowed me to pick up Shattenkirk a couple years back). Normally a player born in 1992 would be ineligible as a free agent -- except where they have been previously dropped by another team. As the Quebec Rordiques dropped Coyle previously, the Micahleks wisely snapped him up.

2013-Nov-6
The Vanrooser Canicks add Jake Muzzin and drop Jonathan Ericksson

2013-Nov-7
The Mackhawks add Tommy Wingels and drop Wayne Simmonds 

Not much say about either of these. Muzzin has 8 points, Ericksson has 3 and is on the IR. Same goes for the Mackhawks - Wayne Simmonds is playing on the worst team in recent memory and has 5 points to Tommy Wingels' 12. 

Good pickups gentlemen. 

Transaction

11/6/2013 The Powder Rangers add Josh Harding and drop "Sugar" Ray Emery.

A noted pacifist, the Powder Rangers GM has no patience for the antics of amateur pugilist and occasional goaltender Ray Emery. 

Also, Harding has proven to be a pretty good goaltender, having seized the starting job in Minnesota, with 8 wins, 2 shutouts, a 1.09 GAA and a .951 Sv%.

Transactions

One time in high school, me and my buddies went to the Laughing Llama, a local convenience/grocery store and decided to rent a porno. We picked the weirdest one possible. It was called "Transactions 2" and it featured, as expected, various transsexuals engaged in various actions. We put it on the TV at the top of the stairs which was our usual in-school hangout (for those who don't know, I went to a self-paced high school and this is why I took 6 years to graduate a 4 year high school program). Mrs. MacLeod was some upset when she came up the stairs that day!

Anyways, every time I type that headline, I think of that story and it makes me chuckle.

Two transaction to announce:

11/3/2013
The Los Samjawors Kings drop Eric Gudbranson and add Derek Morris.

11/3/2013
The Winter Claassics drop Olli Jokinen and add Andrew Shaw

Gudbranson has 1 point in 14 games, which hilariously puts him more or less on his usual career pace. The Kings needed some offence from their blue line and took a gamble on Derek Morris. Morris's best season was more than a decade ago when he scored 48 points with the Avalanche. In recent years he as been much more subdued, but is currently one of the hottest d-men in the league. Even if he reverts back to his usual pace, he is clearly a better point-getter than Gudbranson. 

The Claassics similarly identified some dead weight (Jokinen's 6 points in 15 games would put him at a career low 34 points) and the hot hand (Andrew Shaw has 9 points in 15 games, but 7 of those points have come in the last 9 games). 

If either or both of these guys defy expectations they will be great pickups, but given the players they are replacing, it is a win-win for both the Kings and the Claassics.

Transactions

I have a few to catch up on here. 

10/22/2013 Trade

The Quebec Rordiques send:

Dustin Brown, Brendan Smith, 2014 6th round draft pick

to the Dicklas Lidstroms for:

Drew Stafford and Michael Del Zotto

The Quebec Rordiques noted, correctly, that they "needed a D with Boyle going down and [their] D being a mess generally." Clearly Del Zotto is struggling early but in most other years would be competitive for a keeper roster slot. 

In exchange the Rordiques had to part with Dustin Brown, who could challenge for a scoring roster spot. Stafford, despite early struggles, is no slouch either, being barely removed from two consecutive 50 point seasons.  Perhaps there might be some chemistry with Matt Moulson? 

10/26/2013 FA pickup

The Los Samjawors Kings drop Ryane Clowe and add Mike Santorelli

Ryane Clowe sucks. I hate his name. Mike Santorelli is the hot hand right now. Has a much better name. Fun Fact: I learned, in adding this trade, that there is a dude named "Michal Macho" drafted in 2000 by the Sharks. He has not played an NHL game and is not a goon, both of which are disappointing.

10/28/2013 Trade

The Los Samjawors Kings send:

Ben Bishop and Tyler Myers

to the Teeyotes for:

Evgeni Nabokov and Brent Seabrook

Rumours have suggested that the busy Los Samjawors Kings have been trying to move Ben Bishop for some time - and for good reason. Bishop has seized the starting job in Tampa and has posted very good numbers. The Teeyotes - in desperate need of any goalie period - had to give up Brent Seabrook to get him. Look for the surprisingly engaged Teeyotes to attempt to shore up their defence corps if they wish to be a playoff team this year. 

Seriously I am so excited to see Teehan make a trade.  

Transactions (first trade of the season!)

Two transactions to report.

Add/Drop
10/19/2013 Powder Rangers drop Kyle Palmieri and add Jiri Tlusty

Hilariously, the day the Patrik Stefans dropped Jiri Tlusty, he found his scoring touch, potting 2 while playing on the top line with Semin and Staal. The Powder Rangers almost immediately picked him up. Get your side bets going on Tlusty vs. Arcobello! (hint: Tlusty will score more points than Arcobello this year). 

Trade

10/22/2013 
The Dicklas Lidstroms send:

• Drew Stafford
• Michael Del Zotto 

to the Quebec Rordiques for:

• Dustin Brown
• Brendan Smith 
• Rordiques 6th rounder in 2014

A good old fashioned hockey trade.

The Rordiques have lost Boyle for at least a while and are generally weak at that position. Del Zotto should fill a need now and in the future as he may make the Rordique's keeper list, assuming he (and the Rangers) bump their atrocious start. In exchange he traded from a position of strength - his fairly deep set of forwards. Dustin Brown was expendable for the Rordiques. Stafford may or may not be an impact player for the Rordiques this year - if not, he will be a mere filler to make the trade happen.

On the flipside, the Dicklas Lidstroms have defence depth to spare, and in the words of the Lidstrom's GM, "drafting Enstrom made [Del Zotto] expendable." Brown should flesh out the scoring roster a bit and at least provide some stability in one of those final two scoring roster slots.

Add/Drop
10/22/2013 Dicklas Lidstroms drop Brendan Smith and add Sami Salo

Related to the above trade, the Lidstroms couldn't resist Sami Salo's 5 points in 7 games. The guy finally - finally - had something close to a full season last year. Injury threat aside, Salo should give the Lidstroms some much-needed veteran depth on a team featuring Jared Spurgeon, Patrick Wierciock and Ryan Murphy as top 4 scoring roster d-men.  Not a bad set of young defencemen, no doubt, but they have 230 NHL games combined (Spurgeon is the most experienced with a career high of 23 points).

Transactions

A few roster changes yesterday and today (listed with effective dates - as a reminder, your add/drops take effect the next day, not the date the add/drop is made):

10/18/2013 Quebec Rordiques drop Charlie Coyle and add Chris Higgins

10/19/2013 Wilkes-Benham/Scranton Parkers drop Ben Jovejoy and add Marc-Edouard Vlasic

10/19/2013 Patrik Stefans drop Jiri Tlusty and add Mark Arcobello

The Rordiques make their very first free agent add/drop (super adorable, like watching a baby take its first steps), snapping up Chris Higgins. Higgins has looked quite good under Tortorella and is getting quite a bit of ice time in various situations. He isn't going to lead the Rordiques in scoring but should be an upgrade on Charlie Coyle. Reminder: Charlie Coyle is available for pickup notwithstanding his age (born in 1992) because he was dropped from a roster. 

Wilkes-Benham/Scranton Parkers GM, Romany Benham-Parker, has picked up the red-hot Marc-Edouard Vlasic. They have dropped Ben Lovejoy, who with only three syllables all season clearly does not fit into the team's long-term naming scheme. 

The Patrik Stefans have once again dipped into their inscrutable SYSTEM to pull up yet another player no one has ever heard of in Mark Arcobello. Jiri Tlusty (who the Stefans kept from last year) goes to the scrap heap. In fairness, Arcobello has 8 assists in 8 games playing with Eberle and Hall.

Transactions

In the first transaction of the year, the Winter Claassics drop Martin Erat and add Mason Raymond. (edit: the answer to my rhetorical question from earlier is "almost exactly 1.5 hours" - G.)

Not much to say here. Erat is averaging like 7 minutes per night. Raymond has 4 points and looks rejuvenated and sort of pissed off. Even if MayRay fails to keep up his torrid pace.... he was going to outscore Erat.

Fun fact: On January 5, 2012, the Mackhawks traded Teemu Selanne to the Dicklas Lidstroms for Martin Erat and the Keeper League almost imploded.

Between January 6, 2012 and the end of the regular season, Erat actually outscored Selanne, 36 points to 30, meaning that Dickie came out the loser on that trade that year, and we lost our collective shit over nothing. 

Last year they both had 24 points each, in 45 games (Erat) and 46 games (Selanne).