Originally Posted by
Big Ev
Smith has tailed off since the first half of 11/12. He does carry the puck well for a third liner and is good defensively. He doesn't really hit to hurt and takes a lot of bad penalties. Has great character and work ethic though. Oilers could definitely use him more than Ottawa who have their future C's locked up already IMO.
But wouldn't a player like Hemsky hurt Ottawa's youth development? I mean, they've got 7-8 players that can play on the top 2 lines (9 if you add Latendresse, but I wouldn't): Spezza, Turris, Michalek, Alfie, Conacher, Zibanejad, Silfverberg and Neil... Adding Hemsky just bumps one of the kids down the depth chart, when they can produce Hemsky-like numbers at a fraction of his salary. Losing Smith means that they will also have a big hole on the 3rd line and I don't think any of the above players can fill that void (considering Neil already plays on the 3rd line).
Keeper league 14 teams (H2H, 20 active players keep 16 NHLers, 16 minors)
Scoring Cats: G-A-PTS-PPG-PPA-(+/-)-HITS-BLK-SHP-SOG-FOW-GWG / W-L-SVS-SV%-GAA-SO
C- Crosby, Barzal, Bennett, Schmaltz, Novak
W- Forsberg, Batherson, Nichuskin, Tuch, Konecny, Maccelli, Sharangovich, Bertuzzi, Kaliyev, Neighbours, Reichel
D- Carlson, Rielly, Klingberg
G- Hellebuyck, Demko, Merzlikins, Vejmelka
Minors:
F: Fantilli, Cooley, Bourgault, Perreault, Cowan, Ohgren, N. Foote, Goyette, Iskhakov, Denisenko, Tracey
D: Simashev, Willander, Lambos
G: Schmidt, Rodrigue, DiPietro, Gaudreau, McKay