shane doan – McKeen's Hockey

Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire: Rookies and Veterans

McKeen's Hockey — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 01:18:50 +0000

During the season it is important to keep an eye on the transaction wire in the NHL to stay abreast of players who have been recalled from and sent down to the AHL. Young prospects that have impressed in the minors sometimes only need a chance at the NHL, and what may have started as a short term recall can quickly become a permanent roster fixture. Here are three players who have been called up to their NHL clubs recently.

Melker Karlsson, San Jose Sharks - Centre 25% owned

Karlsson was recalled on Monday by the Sharks and made his season debut on Tuesday. While Karlsson was held pointless he had three shots and delivered five hits playing 15 minutes on a line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski. It was somewhat of a surprise that Karlsson didn’t receive a roster spot to start the season as he was impressive last year when he arrived playing in 53 games recording 24 points in that span. Karlsson is a solid candidate to begin producing at a consistent pace, especially if he can hold down a spot on a line with the Joe’s!

Andreas Athanasiou, Detroit Red Wings - Centre 15% owned

I have long been a fan of AA since seeing him in junior. His blazing speed and ability to control the puck and make plays at top speed are skills that translate well in the NHL. He has highlight reel goal scoring abilities and made his pro debut last season in Grand Rapids. After a strong rookie pro season he was a standout in training camp and in several preseason games. AA scored his first career goal in his second game, and while he has the ability to score works of art goals, it was no Rembrandt as it is one Holtby should have had.

Frank Vatrano, Boston Bruins – Left Wing 22% owned

Vatrano exploded out of the gates with Providence in his rookie season scoring ten goals in ten games. A goal-a-game scoring pace over ten games is sure to get you a look at the next level, and sure enough he scored his first career NHL goal in his first game. Vatrano is playing on a line with David Krejci and Loui Eriksson and could hold down that role as David Pasternak is injured.

Old, but not obsolete

When choosing between young, unproven players with upside and veterans who are on the decline I usually lean towards the younger player. However if you need more reliable, predictable production for the short term, here are three grey beards who are widely undrafted and available that still have some gas in the tank

Scott Gomez, St. Louis Blues – Centre 8% owned

Gomez won a contract after a successful audition with a PTO and has seven points in ten games this season. With four points in the last three games the veteran has been providing consistent and modest production all season. If he is filling out one of your last forward roster spots with a cap hit of $550k producing a point per game, that’s great value.

Martin Havlat, St. Louis Blues – Right Wing 8% owned

The Martin Brodeur effect is in full force in St. Louis as Marty has signed two of his old teammates from the Devils in Gomez and Havlat and gave Dainius Zubrus a shot as well with a PTO. While Zubrus didn’t work out, Gomez has been a success and after two games, Havlat has one goal while averaging a modest seven minutes a game. Havlat has a two way contract and if the Blues are healthy Havlat may end up either in the press box, or in the minors. Havlat is also knows as Mr. Glass so one way or another expect him to be a short term solution should you claim him as a free agent in your league.

Shane Doan, Arizona Coyotes – Right Wing 27% owned

With plenty of ink being used to write about an impressive young group of coyotes in the desert in Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and company don’t overlook old man Doan. No, I am not suggesting Doan will score 30 goals but he can be counted on for decent production and he provides solid peripheral stats as well. So far he has seven points including three power play points, 33 shots on goal, 28 hits and 16 penalty minutes this season.

Making the most of their opportunity

Sometimes a player just needs a break to show what he can do, and occasionally they get that chance. Perhaps injuries force them up the depth chart, or it could be a change of team or Coach. Whatever the reason, here are three players making the most of their opportunity.

James Reimer, Toronto Maple Leafs – Goalie 39% owned

The Leafs seem hell bent on anointing Jonathan Bernier as the number one goalie and Reimer has had a struggle finding starts since Berniers arrival. Now that Bernier is on the shelf with an injury, Reimer has been handed the ball and he is running with it. In two games against the Dallas Stars Reimer was outstanding, in his last two starts against Dallas and Washington his save % has been .947 and .935. It would be very difficult to take him out of the net right now, even if Bernier returned.

Kyle Palmieri, New Jersey Devils – Right Wing 56% owned

Palmieri is riding a hot streak of nine points in his last seven games, and being over 50% owned you may not be able to add him at this point. However, if he is available you will likely not find a better option. He is only 24 years old and his point per game pace is trending up steadily over the past three years. He has been playing regularly on a line with Jiri Tlusty and Travis Zajac and the unit has had chemistry.

Charlie Coyle, Minnesota Wild – Centre 48% owned

Coyle seems to be the beneficiary of the injury to Zach Parise and he has two points in the last two games. Coyle has promising offensive skills and needs a chance in the top play in the top nine or top six to showcase his abilities. Lately he has been playing with Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville and making the most of it.

All ownership numbers based on Fantrax leagues

All line combinations are from Frozen pools via Dobber Hockey

DESERT NOMADS

McKeen's Hockey — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:15:16 +0000

With ownership headlines finally fading into memory, The clubs final season as the Phoenix Coyotes ended in the regular season. The Arizona Coyotes will be hard pressed to see a return to the playoffs, but if Star goalie Mike Smith returns to his 2011-12 form they may well do that.

The Coyotes most significant change came in the form of buying out problem-child Mike Ribeiro after only one season of a four-year contract. They will attempt to replace Ribeiro’s offence with Sam Gagner, who is provided a new opportunity in the desert to reach his potential. Martin Erat was a late season acquisition and now must fill the void left by Radim Vrbata, their leading scorer in both goals and points over the last three seasons. How they meet that challenge remains a key question going into the season.

The Coyotes ranked 18th overall in goals for and the team was led offensively by defenceman Keith Yandle who had 53 points. Coach Dave Tippett will continue to preach defense first, and a lack of star power will result in another season of low offensive production. The aging Shane Doan continues to provide a well balance stat package from goals to shots, and hits. Mikkel Boedker, Martin Hanzal, and Antoine Vermette provide additional offence and are great fantasy value options in later rounds.

Help is on the way and could arrive as soon as this season in the form of Max Domi who has great offensive ability and fantasy upside as well as Henrik Samuelsson, and Anton Karlsson who provide less offence but are bigger more aggressive players with better Roto-fantasy value.

Arizona’s chances of seeing the playoffs will depend on Smith and the solid defensive core, led by Yandle, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Zbynek Michalek and the continued development of youngsters like Brandon Gormley and Connor Murphy.

We have posted the following player profiles for the 2014-15 season Mikkel Boedker, Shane Doan, Sam Gagner, Martin Hanzal, Martin Erat, Antoine Vermette, Lauri Korpikoski, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Keith Yandle, Mike Smith

Phoenix Game Tying Goal vs Ottawa Oct 15

Gus Katsaros — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 21:50:25 +0000

I was watching the Senators and Coyotes late in the third period with Ottawa up 3-2 featuring a Jason Spezza natural hat trick, when blueliner Chris Phillips was called for interference at 15:04 of the third period sending the Desert Dogs to their fourth powerplay of the evening – and finally capitalizing with the man advantage.

I was focused on Colin Greening on the game-tying goal sequence from the Coyotes breakout to the puck breaking the goal line plane and hitting the mesh in the back. It was a kind of pinball play where the puck took some crazy bounces en route to beating Craig Anderson.

I was locked on Greening thinking, that he was puck watching the entire play and one of the reasons the puck ended up in the back of the net. It wasn’t just him, there were others involved however.

Here’s the play in full, before we get into the image itemization.

THE SEQUENCE

The game-tying goal started with a Coyotes controlled breakout with a fairly uncontested zone exit, given plenty of space to move the puck out.

Colin Greening was lined up on the left side of the ice, but playing it a little too conservative, giving up too much space for the Yotes to maneuver through the Senators penalty kill unit. It’s almost as if he was locking the left side lane to force the Coyotes to go up the right side.

Greening gives up a lot of space backing up into the neutral zone, offering little (interpreted as, zero) forechecking pressure.

The question here is where this is by design or simply an oversight on the winger’s part to fully engage? If it’s the former, that’s correctable by coaching staff, however, as the next image shows, lack of pressure from the left side forced Senators captain to do something to thwart a clean zone exit.

As the play moved into center ice, Spezza dashed from his position at center down towards the Coyotes blueline making a sudden stop. This seems a little odd given the situation didn’t require him to make the dash. The result was opening up a lot of ice for the two players (Antoine Vermette and Mike Ribeiro) clustered at the blueline to maneuver, as we see in the next image.

The pass is made to the dashing winger (Mike Ribeiro) as he darts through the neutral zone. Spezza must react to this threat and dashes back engaging the player on the blueline (Antoine Vermette) who receives the pass and controls the puck along the wall. In the meantime, all four Senators penalty killers are watching the puck carrier.

After the drop pass, Ribeiro pushes back the defense. He should be Erik Karlsson’s man, with Eric Gryba settling back into the slot to be ready to defend as a crease presence.

Greening is still watching the puck at this point too.

This is where the confusion and breakdown occurs. Spezza has his man covered as Shane Doan enters the zone behind Greening. Spezza is also limiting the pass back to the blueline as penalty killing forward should. Karlsson has whiffed on checking Ribeiro leaving him to Eric Gryba to handle, while he watches Vermette and Spezza battle it out along the boards.

Greening is gazing in the direction of the puck and Doan is sneaking in from the point into the slot and with a quick glance, Greening follows to take away the passing option. This is shown in the image below.

Spezza loses the board battle. I was still locked on Greening at this point and thought ‘too low, you’re too low in the zone; too low.’ Going back over the sequence of events, he had little choice to get low because of the combination Karlsson whiff and subsequent Gryba pick up of the man in front Ribeiro, not allowing for him to pick up Doan skating through the slot. Greening had to get there to prevent the pass in front.

Karlsson is in No-Man’s Land covering no one. Vermette beats Spezza along the wall and it’s all over, the play has broken down.

By the time the puck is passed back to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Greening has no chance to challenge the shooter and is too low in the zone, affording the rearguard a lot of space as he cocked back and fired a pinball into the crowd in front.

Greening if he was playing the zone a little higher would have been able to close down space quicker, or perhaps even prevented the pass across to the soft area of the ice by being ready with a stick or his body in the passing lane.

Of course, he was only the cog in the series of events that led to the goal. The play could have been avoided in one sense if he had applied more forechecking pressure during the Coyotes controlled breakout, but we can let the coaching staff address that.

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