Today and really the entire holiday weekend has been a tough for hockey writers everywhere with the news of what came out on Twitter late last night. It is an unfortunate lesson that we have to learn. However, we slowly try to trudge onward. Unfortunately the week was a bit slow but we still did get some good questions in. Thanksgiving and Black Friday often are a holiday weekend where hockey takes a back seat.
When you think about it, there is always that question that irks you at some point during the year. Naturally it only took until December 1st to hit that breaking point. Here are our questions today from the mailbag.
Fantasy Hockey Mailbag
What do you think of the Martin Brodeur signing? What kind of fantasy value do you expect him to have?
Here we go! The Brodeur question has been one that has plagued fantasy hockey scribes and hockey writers alike for the last several months. When you get down to it, St. Louis and Minnesota seemed fairly likely destinations given their goalie history. Minnesota seemed to make the most sense because their goalies could never stay healthy. There was the Josh Harding issue that is still there but no one expected Nik Backstrom to stay healthy at his age. Then that hot start by Darcy Kuemper just threw everything into a state of unexpected stability.
There were plenty of rumors to go around but in the end Martin Brodeur ended up in St. Louis over the weekend. With a knee injury sidelining Brian Elliott, the dots were all connected. It is very likely that Brodeur will sign on Tuesday as both sides appear to like what they see in each other. The question then becomes how many games does the iconic goalie play with Jake Allen considered to be the starter? Also, when does Elliott come back? Variables exist that we do not know the complete answers to necessarily.
The other problem is Ryan Miller was great in Buffalo and then struggled mightily in St. Louis after a hot start. He did rack up wins but is doing the same in Vancouver despite some not very impressive numbers. What the heck does this mean for Brodeur? The goalie can still handle the puck pretty well and can still make the saves for the most part. Can rest be balanced with play? If he is plugged in for say a third of the games, the former New Jersey Devils netminder could be very effective. Nobody really knows what he will do but Yahoo has buzzed for the guy. He has shot up from dead 0% to 12% in a matter of days. When he signs, that could easily double or triple, maybe more.
If you are looking for a goalie and desperate enough in deeper leagues, then Brodeur is your guy. Expect there to be risks and dicey games tossed in however. Let's take one more question.
When is the David Krejci train going to stop? Is he finally going to play later next week?
The answer is get back to me then. This has gone back and forth more times than multiple rides on the bumper cars. No one really knows what is going on and that may even include management. David Krejci will miss the entire West Coast trip and presumably a decision will be made after that.
He had flipped from DTD to playing to playing a few shifts to DTD to practicing then DTD then played then DTD and now IR. Did you get all that? I hope you did. It does seem a lot of players are just getting hurt during or right after they recover from something else. Artem Anisimov is out 2-3 months with a torn ab muscle as a glaring example and yes there will inevitably be others.
Just wait and see from the Boston beat before rushing to sneak Krejci back into your lineup. Do not go "Fools Rushing In" on this because it will not end well yet again. People hopefully have learned their lessons from oh, the last half dozen times.
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Good luck this week and do not forget to leave those questions @ChrisWasselTHW. See you next week!