Roy will quickly learn that Colorado is a better team when Landeskog and O'Reilly are getting more ice time than Duchene and PAP.
Colorado has pegged their forward lines for the coming year as:
RW-C-LW
O'Reilly - Duchene - PAP
Landeskog - Stastny - Tanguay
McGinn - MacKinnon - Downie
My notes:
1. O'Reilly has played only C and should open on most fantasy hockey websites as C-only. He has sneaky value here that could hurt or help a fantasy team:
i) In FOW leagues, it will hurt to be C... but not take any FOW. If your fantasy team has a DEEP bench, you may want to stash him though...
ii) In non-FOW leagues, he could be a sneaky late-addition. Center could be overloaded next year if players like Giroux/ Backes/ Benn/ Datsyuk/ Zetterberg/ J.Staal/ Duchene are all possibly rightly pegged as just C. This means that O'Reilly could fall off some one-year draft boards because he is buried behind too many Cs. Draft him as a C, expecting eventual LW eligibility.
2. Tanguay is listed as only LW in most leagues.
A little LW/RW dual-eligibility can give him a nice value bump in some leagues.
3. Downie has been LW/RW and should likely remain that way. He was out for the whole year but could be a top sleeper candidate in many leagues next year.
Summary:
Sleepers: O'Reilly, Downie
Roy will quickly learn that Colorado is a better team when Landeskog and O'Reilly are getting more ice time than Duchene and PAP.
Good comments Pen! I think Mac passes Stastny for the 2C by the midpoint of the year. Also (mostly based on last year):
PP1 - Duchene - Parenteau - O'Reilly - Landeskog - Barrie
PP2 - Stastny - Tanguay - Mackinnon - Hejduk/Downie - Elliot
I could see Mac being PP1 in O'Reilly's spot by midpoint of the year. Last year O'Reilly was the other point guy.
Most coaches will try (try!) to keep line 1 in tact on PP1, so that when the PP is over they can get their full line 1 back on the ice.
If that is the case, MacK could very well inch his way onto that PP1:
PP1 - Duchene - Parenteau - O'Reilly - MacK/Downie/McG - Barrie
PP2 - Stastny - Tanguay - Landeskog - MacK/Downie/McG - D
ES1 - ROR-Duchene-PAP (line 1)
I like it.. Every line seems to be nicely balanced; some offence, some defence, a playmaker..
Be interesting to see how it fairs out!
16 Team H2H League (Keep 6)
3C - 3LW - 3RW - 6D - 2G
2013 1st place, 2014 1st place, 2015 1st place
G, A, +/-, PIM, SOG, HIT, BLK GS, W, GAA, SV%, SO
C= Stall, Marchessault, Hayes, Suzuki
LW= Svechnikov, Goodrow, DeBrusk,
RW= P.Kane, Kucherov, Fiala, Johnson
D= Rielly, Borowieki, Fowler, Hagg, Murphy
G= Demko, Samsonov, Jarry, Allen, Shesterkin, Talbot
Nice to see, but I just don't hold a lot of stock in it.
He hasn't even seen them on the ice together yet. Line combos in the middle of summer are like mock drafts 8 months early. Fun to look at, but not worth getting excited about.
Remember how sweet the Nash-Richards-Gabby/Callahan line was gonna look last summer?
I just hope Stastny can do more than the 50-55 he's been putting up.
Points-only, Full Keeper Dynasty League
Active roster (no starts, just total points): 12 FW, 6 D, 1 Goalie
Forwards: Kucherov, Barkov, Teravainen, Seguin, Hoffman, Lindholm, Gusev, Horvat, Meier, Perron, Schwartz, Johansen, Pavelski, Buchnevich, Hischier, Granlund, Bracco
Defense: Josi, Dahlin, Letang, Gostisbehere, Ekman-Larsson, Petry, Slavin, Keith, Matheson
Goal: Lehner, Holtby, Varlamov
Farm: Soderstrom, York, Woo, Tracey, Dorofeyev
16 Team H2H League (Keep 6)
3C - 3LW - 3RW - 6D - 2G
2013 1st place, 2014 1st place, 2015 1st place
G, A, +/-, PIM, SOG, HIT, BLK GS, W, GAA, SV%, SO
C= Stall, Marchessault, Hayes, Suzuki
LW= Svechnikov, Goodrow, DeBrusk,
RW= P.Kane, Kucherov, Fiala, Johnson
D= Rielly, Borowieki, Fowler, Hagg, Murphy
G= Demko, Samsonov, Jarry, Allen, Shesterkin, Talbot
intuitively I have Downie, Elliott and Stastny as the sleepers on that squad. Be very interesting to see how things pan out - I do think we will see an overall increase in offensive production from the Avs.
yeah I snagged Downie last year anticipating a poor finish by the Avs and another top notch pick. We've seen before that he can play the complimentary Semenko-like role whilst racking up 40-50 pts and a shit ton of PIMs. I own Stastny too and I'm still uncertain if he'll bounce back or not...hopeful but I dunno
I also agree with Stone... It seems silly to announce lines in Mid August. Everyone knows that lineups change a lot during the season. I'm wondering if this is Roy's way of cushioning the blow if MacKinnon isn't a star right out of the gate like a lot are expecting.
I'd be very surprised if MacKinnon stayed a 3d line centre for the entire season. You dont line up someone with as much hype as him with plugs for the year. Doesn't make sense and its bad asset management.
I would be putting very little thought into what this means for the upcoming season.