Nashville—Ryan Suter: Sure, Craig Smith and David Legwand deserve some credit, but Suter is the most likely to remain a strong performer. So far he has virtually identical numbers to his partner Shea Weber and he likely went 5-10 rounds later. (If he was drafted at all, that is.)
New Jersey—Patrik Elias: The long-time Devils forward went well after Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk in every draft one can think of, but he’s leading New Jersey with 20 points in 20 games.
Islanders—N/A: *shrugs*
Rangers—Marian Gaborik: He’s exceeding expectations in the most important category of all (for him, at least): 18 out of 18 games played.
Ottawa—Milan Michalek: Boy, that Dany Heatley trade isn’t looking so bad anymore with Michalek on fire and Heater in Minnesota, eh? As long as he’s riding shotgun with Jason Spezza, Michalek's results should continue – to at least some extent.
Philadelphia—Claude Giroux: I think most hardcore fans knew Giroux was talented, but few expected him to leap this far in 2011-12. Jaromir Jagr’s been great as a running mate, but his groin injury is something that could derail a fantastic steal.
Phoenix—Mike Smith: If I remember correctly, Smith is the first guy I pleaded with Daily Dose readers to pick up. Hopefully you heeded my desperate wails.
Pittsburgh—James Neal and Kris Letang: Anyone who looked past Neal’s tough second half of 2010-11 and acknowledged his talent (and linemates) is smiling wide. The same goes for Letang, who could be a top-10 or even top 5 fantasy blueliner with a healthy Sidney Crosby in the mix.
San Jose—Joe Thornton: Every fantasy owner who drafted him somewhere around the fourth round had to cackle with glee, right? Joe Pavelski has been sensational, too, but Jumbo Joe is more likely to sustain his great play.
St. Louis—Brian Elliott: In a just world, he’d be the full-on starter for the Blues. Paycheck politics kind of ruin fantasy finds sometimes, though.
Tampa Bay—Marc-Andre Bergeron: Sure he’s lacking in his own end, but at 17 points, fantasy owners don’t care. Like, at all. (Especially since he has a respectable +3 rating; that’s not half-bad on the leaky Lightning.)
Toronto—Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul: I’ve played this tune on the Daily Dose a lot of times, but the oft-criticized snipers are killing it for Toronto. Dion Phaneuf has justified the low-risk, high-reward propositions that fantasy owners made, too.
Vancouver—Alexander Edler: The Edler Scrolls is making everyone forget about Christian Ehrhoff, with an outstanding 16 points and a useful 57 shots.
Washington—Nicklas Backstrom: Going into the 2011-12 season, I thought Alex Ovechkin was an obvious choice for the top overall pick in fantasy drafts. It turns out he wasn’t even the best choice on his team.
Winnipeg—Kyle Wellwood: The robust forward has a hefty 17 points. Go ahead, have that extra turkey leg Kyle … you’ve earned it. (Sorry, the Order of the Snark forces me to make fat jokes about him. I have no power to avoid this.)
INJURY SNIPES
It looks like Jagr re-injured his lower-body injury. Bummer … Brenden Morrow is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The Stars have games on Friday, Saturday and Monday so if he needs rest, he might miss a big chunk of those. Keep an eye out for updates on his status; hopefully a little rest will help him regain his stride from last season … Carlo Colaiacovo is out with being Carlo Colaiacovo … Steve Downie has a day-to-day injury of his own. (Click here for the full injury list.)
Want to receive the hockey Daily Dose via e-mail Monday-Friday? You can do so by clicking the "NHL" box in your Rotoworld profile.
With Thanksgiving upon us, I thought it might be appropriate to see which players fantasy owners should be most thankful for (apologies to all haters of “theme” columns). To keep it fun, I’ll go team-by-team and limit it to one or two players. The key is that, in most cases, these performers were pleasant surprises. Many owners probably feel gratitude for what the Sedin twins have accomplished, but since they both went in the first or second round, it just doesn’t have that same punch.
Anaheim – Teemu Selanne: OK, this is a partial cheat, but the bottom line is that Selanne still tends to fall too far in fantasy drafts. Call it “ageism” if you want, but he’s ahead of the Ducks’ big three with a team-leading 19 points.
Boston – Tyler Seguin/Brad Marchand: Seguin is exploding in a Stamkos-as-a-sophomore kind of way, with an impressive 23 points. Meanwhile, Marchand’s stats are nearly identical to those of Milan Lucic, yet he was (and maybe still could be) available as a free agent instead of a costly draft pick.
Buffalo – Jason Pominville: His talent was no secret, but I can’t say I expected him to be at 24 points already.
Calgary—Alex Tanguay: Jarome Iginla goes high in drafts, but his playmaking partner is leading the Flames in scoring. Maybe that contract won’t blow up in Jay Feaster’s face like expected?
Carolina – Jeff Skinner: For whatever reason (maybe because of the crowd-pleasing 2011 All-Star selection), I expected Skinner to slide a bit. That hasn’t happened; instead, the crafty winger has been far more valuable that Eric Staal.
Chicago—Nick Leddy: So much for being an afterthought in that cap-clearing Kim Johnsson deal. Leddy has more points (15) than Duncan Keith (12).
Colorado—Kyle Quincey: The slick blueliner is the Avalanche’s second-leading scorer at 14 points, with 20 PIM and a nice amount of shots on goal (57) to boot.
Columbus—Vinny Prospal: Is he the most underrated free agent signing of 2011? Prospal – not Rick Nash – leads the Blue Jackets with 19 points. Curtis Sanford might make a few digi-GMs thankful in the next month, too.
Dallas – Sheldon Souray and Kari Lehtonen: Souray’s soaring slapper earned him 13 points already, although his production might flatten out. Lehtonen earned a ton of wins already and should be a boon in leagues with saves for the rest of the season.
Detroit—Jimmy Howard: How, exactly, is that guy not on the All-Star Game ballot? If Johan Franzen stays healthy for the rest of this season, his owners will likely be as shocked as they would be happy.
Edmonton – the two Ryans (Smyth and Nugent-Hopkins): The Oilers’ top two scorers have paid dividends on what were likely to be frugal draft picks. Nikolai Khabibulin has also been phenomenal, although that might be running out.
Florida—Kris Versteeg: 26 points already. I thought Versteeg(!) would be good, but not this good.
Los Angeles—Anze Kopitar: Maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising, but the “underrated star” has justified his raised fantasy profile this season.
Minnesota—Both goalies: It’s crazy, but if you decided to invest in the Wild’s goalie platoon, you already have 13 wins and a bunch of great performances. Each netminder’s GAA is below two goals. We'll see how much longer Josh Harding can challenge Niklas Backstrom for starts going forward, but it's working out incredibly well for Minnesota so far.
Montreal—Max Pacioretty: The budding power forward went from what looked like a career-ending injury to being one of (if not the) most valuable fantasy scorers for the Habs. My favorite part is his 82 shots on goal, which makes me think that the good times won’t go away soon.
After the jump: the rest of the NHL’s gratitude list, plus injury updates.
Nashville—Ryan Suter: Sure, Craig Smith and David Legwand deserve some credit, but Suter is the most likely to remain a strong performer. So far he has virtually identical numbers to his partner Shea Weber and he likely went 5-10 rounds later. (If he was drafted at all, that is.)
New Jersey—Patrik Elias: The long-time Devils forward went well after Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk in every draft one can think of, but he’s leading New Jersey with 20 points in 20 games.
Islanders—N/A: *shrugs*
Rangers—Marian Gaborik: He’s exceeding expectations in the most important category of all (for him, at least): 18 out of 18 games played.
Ottawa—Milan Michalek: Boy, that Dany Heatley trade isn’t looking so bad anymore with Michalek on fire and Heater in Minnesota, eh? As long as he’s riding shotgun with Jason Spezza, Michalek's results should continue – to at least some extent.
Philadelphia—Claude Giroux: I think most hardcore fans knew Giroux was talented, but few expected him to leap this far in 2011-12. Jaromir Jagr’s been great as a running mate, but his groin injury is something that could derail a fantastic steal.
Phoenix—Mike Smith: If I remember correctly, Smith is the first guy I pleaded with Daily Dose readers to pick up. Hopefully you heeded my desperate wails.
Pittsburgh—James Neal and Kris Letang: Anyone who looked past Neal’s tough second half of 2010-11 and acknowledged his talent (and linemates) is smiling wide. The same goes for Letang, who could be a top-10 or even top 5 fantasy blueliner with a healthy Sidney Crosby in the mix.
San Jose—Joe Thornton: Every fantasy owner who drafted him somewhere around the fourth round had to cackle with glee, right? Joe Pavelski has been sensational, too, but Jumbo Joe is more likely to sustain his great play.
St. Louis—Brian Elliott: In a just world, he’d be the full-on starter for the Blues. Paycheck politics kind of ruin fantasy finds sometimes, though.
Tampa Bay—Marc-Andre Bergeron: Sure he’s lacking in his own end, but at 17 points, fantasy owners don’t care. Like, at all. (Especially since he has a respectable +3 rating; that’s not half-bad on the leaky Lightning.)
Toronto—Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul: I’ve played this tune on the Daily Dose a lot of times, but the oft-criticized snipers are killing it for Toronto. Dion Phaneuf has justified the low-risk, high-reward propositions that fantasy owners made, too.
Vancouver—Alexander Edler: The Edler Scrolls is making everyone forget about Christian Ehrhoff, with an outstanding 16 points and a useful 57 shots.
Washington—Nicklas Backstrom: Going into the 2011-12 season, I thought Alex Ovechkin was an obvious choice for the top overall pick in fantasy drafts. It turns out he wasn’t even the best choice on his team.
Winnipeg—Kyle Wellwood: The robust forward has a hefty 17 points. Go ahead, have that extra turkey leg Kyle … you’ve earned it. (Sorry, the Order of the Snark forces me to make fat jokes about him. I have no power to avoid this.)
INJURY SNIPES
It looks like Jagr re-injured his lower-body injury. Bummer … Brenden Morrow is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The Stars have games on Friday, Saturday and Monday so if he needs rest, he might miss a big chunk of those. Keep an eye out for updates on his status; hopefully a little rest will help him regain his stride from last season … Carlo Colaiacovo is out with being Carlo Colaiacovo … Steve Downie has a day-to-day injury of his own. (Click here for the full injury list.)
Want to receive the hockey Daily Dose via e-mail Monday-Friday? You can do so by clicking the "NHL" box in your Rotoworld profile.