Trade to Announce (DOMINOS!!!!?!??)

The trade deadline is looming, and we have our first post-Olympic deal. 

Feb-26-2014
The Teeyotes send injured Henrik Zetterberg to the Joshfrey Krupuls for Paul Stastny

Both GMs provided me with their analysis of the trade, but in order to keep Teehan's interest I'm going to copy and paste his tl;dr version:

Zetterberg no play hockey. Stastny play hockey good.

Not much else to say. The Teehans are going for a money spot and the cost to do that was Stastny. The Joshfrey Krupuls made the decision to double-down of their previous Lupul trade to build towards future years. 

Long term a young Stastny > a declining Zetterberg, but it is hard to call a winner in this since the teams motivations are different. 

Stay tuned to this blog over the next while as teams begin to declare themselves buyers and sellers. Time is ticking. 

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. 

December Awards/KL Week 14: Week in Review

Happy New Year GMs!

This is the third in a series of monthly awards recognizing some of the high points in the month gone by. If you missed October's and November's, check out the link to "All Monthly Awards" on the left side of this post.

Conveniently, the week ends today as well. Here we sit after three months and 14 weeks of competition:

Week in Review Notes:

• The Schizzarks continue to plummet. They sit 10 points out of last, and a resurgent Vanrooser Canicks team threatens to leapfrog them in short order.
• The best week (23 point) belongs to the Joshfrey Krupuls, who find themselves in serious playoff contention
• I'm super excited to see the Winter Claassics a mere 5 points out of a money spot. 
• 4 teams are within 4 points of each other, straddling the playoff line. A clever move could put one of them over the top - or leave them in the dust. 
• The Fylanders and Micahleks continue to inch their way closer to the top position. Assuming all else remains equal and the top 3 continue at the exact same pace, the Fylanders will eclipse the Micahleks by the end of January and catch the Flyers by the end of February.

Offensive Player of the Month  

This simply has to go to Claude Giroux of the Joshfrey Krupuls. He has scored 19 points in the month of December (after scoring 18 points in all of October and November). Only Crosby and Kane have more points that that this month. Coupled with continued production from Kyle "All you guys at the KL draft have egg on your face" Okposo, Giroux's return to form has made the Krupuls a serious playoff team.


HMs: Patrick Sharp of the Vanrooser Canicks. Desperately in need of a top forward, Sharp has emerged this month as a premiere scoring forward, with 18 points in the month of December. I'd also be remiss if I did not mention Patrick Kane, who has kept pace with Sidney Crosby with a remarkable 23 points - we all knew he was good, but did anyone really think "the only guy in the NHL with a realistic chance of catching Crosby" good? Lastly, the Moilers continue to quietly put together a very impressive season as Taylor Hall rounds into form, with 19 points.

Defensive Player of the Month

The Winter Claassics owe part of their success this month to none other than Cam Fowler. After two consecutive disappointing seasons (especially given his stellar rookie season), Fowler has 11 points in December and is presently on pace to catch PK Subban on the Winter Claassics roster. 
 
HMs: Duncan Keith. Last month's winner has led all defencemen in December with 15 points and sit atop the WBS Parkers' scoring roster - he looks set to smash his previous records. Also of note, late round flyer Andrej Sekera of the G-Phil's Flyers has 10 points in December and is now 13th in NHL D scoring.

Goaltender of the Month

Martin Jones of no KL team whatsoever. Remarkably, this unheralded youngster has played exactly 10 NHL games, all in December, earning a stunning 26 Keeper League points. Does Quick's expected return spell A-H-L for this rookie netminder, or do the Kings opt to keep him up with the team in the event Quick falters again? Will a KL GM take a flyer on this guy?

HMs:  The Powder Rangers have desperately needed points from anywhere they can get them after losing Stamkos for who-knows-how-long in November, and they've gotten exactly that from Craig Anderson, who is amongst the upper tier of point-getters in the KL with 16 on the month. Also of note, Carey Price's 17 points are the only parachute on the rapidly falling Schizzarks.

GM of the Month

It's been a quiet month, but congratulations to the Milan Micahleks. I hated the their trade with the Dicklas Lidstroms, but you can't argue with results - they are sitting pretty in 2nd place. The players traded away and the players obtained all have a total of 8 points in December, but that is without anything from still-injured Dougie Hamilton. It looks like this trade will pay dividends on an ongoing basis.

HMs: The Dicklas Lidstroms, who even in spite of the above got good value for good value in their trade with the Micahleks. Also the Mackhawks, who have maintained a playoff position despite a stunning run of injuries - nor have they panicked. Dropping an injured Dupuis to bring Simmonds back to the fold was the right move as well.

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:

  

Dear Joshfrey Krupuls: