1. Leo Carlsson, LW/C, ANA- Leo has been a revelation for the Anaheim Ducks. He's taking first line center duties of a team that was atrocious last year. Mason McTavish is also a breath of fresh air this year with 10 5on5 points, and Dostal has shut the door with some rather insane goalie numbers. They also have had the 4th strongest strength of schedule as well. Carlsson played alot of wing before we was drafted, and has looked right at home at center. He is struggling in the faceoff dot, but that is to be expected. His size is NHL ready right now although he is not very physical.. yet. He also has a silky smooth skating stride, and I feel only the sky is the limit. My draft projections has him slated as a Miko Rantanen type player, a more pass first approach but still has an elite NHL shot. Rantanen's rookie season was 75 games played 20 goals and 18 assists for 38 points. I'm projected Carlsson , if he plays, to be around a 48 point pace. General manager, Pat Verbeek, has been on the record with wanting to sit him periodically to sort of watch and shower the game, and if this takes place I think his pace will still be that of around 50pts in 80 games. If we can keep with the Rantanen comparison, Rantanen had a 50 goal 50 assist campaign, I think Carlssons upside is 90ish pts, but Rantanen also had a much much better supporting cast. Carlsson is good enough to push pace and support a lineup himself despite having overall elite wingers as well, so his fantasy upside is great.
2. Calen Addison, D, SJ- Calen Addison is a half decent power play quarterback with some great offensive upside. He was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a bag of chips and some pocket lint, another cap casualty of the Minnesota cap hell. Dean Eveson plays a very smothering defensive scheme and Addison was often not deployed regularly except for offensive zone starts and some power play quarterback time. The emergence of Brock Faber on Minnesota, and Dean's lack of usage made Caleb expendable ( they even traded him with alot of injuries). For fantasy purposes, Addison is going to probably play 5 more minutes a night in average for an abymssal San Jose team. He will see a higher boost in periphials like blocked shots, and shots on goal, but his power play points despite being deployed more might suffer. Simply put, he's playing with less talent, and a team averaging 1 goal a game. Minnesota despite it's flaws, had Kaprizov, Ericsson Ek, and Zuccarello to at least help pad the power play stats. San Jose has Hertl and the corpse of Mikael Granlund. Needless to say, I'll be targeting Addison in non +/- leagues especially if owners are scared of Addison being on the Sharks now.
3. Alex Barré-Boulet, W/C, TBL- This dude has more hardware in his trophy closet than a Home Depot. QMJHL most points, goals assists, and most valuable player. AHL all rookie first team, most goals in a season, most rookie points most rookie goals, and rookie of the year. He is slightly over a point per game in the minors. He went undrafted and has stumbled his way into Tampa Bays top 6 cycling between line 1 and line 2, and has looked like he's fit in. He reminds me of a player named Cory Conacher, who Jon Cooper also coached, and who also had some great AHL numbers, and a dazzling rookie campaign. I think Barré-Boulet posseses a little bit more staying power to stay in the majors though. The cap constraints of Tampa allow his cap of 870k to be very favorable to keep around as well. I'd also like anyone who even shares a breath with Nikita Kucherov on my fantasy team.
4. Marco Rossi, C, MIN- Rossi is a personal favorite of mine so my disclaimer is I might have him higher then everyone else. Labeled 5'9 and they might be giving him an inch, and weighing 188lbs, Rossi is an absolute offensive dynamo. Dean Eveson has sort of kept Rossi tucked on the third and fourth lines though and Rossi last year a least struggled to play a more physical game. He gets bodied off the puck pretty easily and cannot separate NHL defenseman off the puck yet, but he has an over average NHL IQ and reads plays very well, and is often in the right spot at the right time. As of writing this article Rossi is currently playing line 1 duties with Mathew Boldy, and Kirill Kaprizov. No offense to Ryan Hartman, but Rossi is much more suited for this role. As previously mentioned, Minnesota is in cap hell so any production from rookie contracts gurantees Rossi is going to at least stay in the majors despite where he might slot in the lineup on a nightly basis. The hope is, his skill prevails and he can build some chemistry with those 2 linemates and secure a #1 center position like his draft projection prognosticated. I have his ceiling around 80 points, with above average SOG, FOW, and maybe a little more hits and blocks to be desired.
5. Jordan Spence, D, LAL- Jordan Spence is an offensive defenseman in the vein of Durzi, Gostisbehere, and a DeAngelo. Like Barré-Boulet, Spence has a whole host of hardware to his name. Spence is on the bottom pairing, but has still managed to chip in 6 assists in 12 games. The Durzi trade solidified Spence's spot in the lineup and he has done alot with very little. Spence might be better than those before mentioned defenseman he's been compared with too because his skating is top notch, and his hockey IQ and ability to get the puck through traffic on net is well above NHL average. He'd almost benefit more by being traded to a team with more ice time for him similar to a Durzi, but he's established himself as a play driver and no matter what team he will be on for his career, he will put points on the board. Maybe more of a dynasty target unless an injury were to derail LA's defense though, Spence while good, has found himself on the bottom of the LA depth chart.
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