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.

Transaction

Pretty big stack of players moving teams yesterday (and this close to the Christmas break - for shame). 

The Dicklas Lidstroms send:
Jakob Silfverberg, Dougie Hamilton, Artem Anisimov

To the Milan Micahleks for:
Justin Williams, Slava Voynov and Steve Downie

I confess to being a bit confused by this trade for the Micahleks. They are trading three guys who have combined for 52 points for guys who have a combined 27 points. Also, Hamilton and Silfverberg are both currently injured. 

Presumably the Micahleks want a top 2 finish, but in the short term the Lidstroms get the edge in this trade. Long term, the Micahleks are well positioned with a couple of good young players. 

Here's my assessment from the outside looking in:


Silfverberg has long term upside and could be a PPG player, but not this year. He had 7 points in 11 games, but that was at the start of the season when the Ducks were pouring goals into the net. If he hits 45 points I will be surprised. 

Justin Williams, on the other hand, has 22 points in 33 games. Much of that can be attributed to Jeff Carter's absence, but he is good for 50 points this year.

This year: Williams = Silfverberg
Two years from now: Silverberg >> Williams

Dougie Hamilton is a long-term keeper and should be a 45-50+ pt d-man - but again, not this year. He is on pace for 20 points and sits on the IR with a lower body injury. He is, however, prospect-eligible.

In exchange, the Micahleks give up Voynov - who should also be a 45-50+ pt d-man longer term. Remember, this dude led the Kings in scoring in the playoffs last year and is tied with Wayne fucking Gretzky for 2nd place in franchise history for playoff GWGs.

This year: Voynov > Hamilton
Two years from now: Voynov = Hamilton

Lastly, Steve Downie has 17 points in 28 games to Anisimov's 13 in 32. These guys actually have remarkably similar career numbers to date. Anisimov probably has more top end talent but is an "enigmatic Russian" - also he plays for the Blue Jackets. 

This year: Downie > Anisimov
Two years from now: Downie = Anisimov

Transaction (and thoughts about goalie/D-man importance)

November 12, 2013

The Milan Micahleks send Dan "one-point" Girardi + 2014 first round selection

to the Wilkes-Benham/Scranton Parkers for Brian Campbell

Obviously this is a first round draft pick for Campbell. There is no doubt that Campbell has been an excellent fantasy option for many years - even in his injury-shortened "down" season in 2010, his 27 points would have been good to make many scoring rosters. Last year he scored 46 points pro-rated and had 53 the year before. Clearly, the Micahleks, tasting 1st place after a stunning leap from 15th, are going all-in early to win it this year.

However, Campbell is getting older and showed signs of slowing last year. His 9 points in 18 games is actually below his career average, and well off his high water marks. For the WBS Parkers, this is a classic and well-timed rebuild move.

November 9, 2013

The G-Phil's Flyers send Ondrej Pavelec, Brandon Saad, 2014 6th round draft pick + 1 FA add/drop 

to the Patrik Stefans for:Jaroslav Halak + Kris Versteeg

The G-Phil's Flyers need a goalie to replace injured starter Pekka Rinne. 

Rinne is a goalie who, despite playing behind a pretty bad team, manages to be one of the top point-getters in the Keeper League year-to-year. However, with his hip issues, his trade value is at an all-time low. The vultures were circling Rinne's rotting hip, but at the end of the day, the Flyers opted to hold on to him. 

Halak has been off to a hot start, and while he tends to find himself either a) in a tandem situation or b) hurt, he is clearly a better option for the Flyers than Pavelec, at least on a stop-gap basis.

The Stefans, in turn, get a promising young forward in Brandon Saad, and the FA add/drop flexibility to pull a still-legal Fy Gambit depending on how Pavelec/Schneider plays out. Given how good Schneider is going to be moving forward, it was likely that Halak would have faced the chopping block, and Stefan managed to get much better value than goalies traditionally get in the off-season.

Counterpoint to Stefan's Post?  

I think these trades provides a sort-of counterpoint to Stefan's excellent post earlier. Goalies and defencemen may not correlate strongly with championships, but the difference between first and second place in each of our years has been 15, 11, and 9 points (and is currently at 11 points). The average difference between rankings last year was a mere 9.33 points. This is a surprisingly competitive league, and 10 extra points can mean moving up into playoff position, or into the money, or into 1st place.

As Stefan's post indicated, the Micahleks have one of the strongest forward groups in the league thus far, and one of the strongest goalies. The also have one of the weakest defences in the league. A mere 10 extra points from Brian Campbell might mean the difference between 1st and 2nd for that team. 

The same is true of the Flyers who do not feel safe at all at present.

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.