Thanks for the analysis. You might be right about Booth. Just having a look at his career stats his college career was sporadic. Played great as a freshman but then struggled as a sophomore and it wasn't until his senoir year that he reached a point per game average again. Was his freshman year a fluke?
Then at the AHL level, as a 22yr old, he didn't excel(~0.5ppg) but still managed to jump to the NHL that same year despite his postulated defensive deficiencies.
His 30g season you could attribute to just getting a ton of playing time, which can happen when average players play on terrible teams (they have to put someone on the #1 PP unit). But at the same time he did outscore a few guys (Horton, Frolik, Stillman) that you could argue are more talented than him, so he's not just some joe average who got lucky he must have some talent. That and he was in the USND program as a teen so he has some sort of pedigree.
So, what should Canucks fans expect? A 30g season? Probably not, he's not talented enough to produce that well without getting top line minutes. He won't be playing top PP unit but should get time on the 2nd unit which is an uninspiring Higgins, Hodgson and a Sedin-less Burrows. I think he could hit Mason Raymond-like numbers, 25g, 50pts. But more importantly he adds a speed+size combo that the 2nd line wasn't getting from Raymond/Samuelsson/Hansen/Hodgson.
keytolife, I'd be interested to know your thoughts on Higgins as a Panther. You could argue that based on his play last year that the Canucks shouldn't have expected much, but he turned (back) into a pretty effective player. Hoping maybe lightning could strike twice with Booth. (I'm just hoping so, I just dropped Gionta for Booth ;-) I'm 55% confident it was a good call).
10 team, roto G, A, PTS, PIM, PPP, SHP, +/-, Shots, W, Save %, SO
2011/12 Roster:
C: Getzlaf, M. Richards, Weiss, Dubinsky
LW: Burrows, Benn, Malone, Kunitz
RW: Malkin, C. Stewart, Semin, J. Williams
D: Letang, Phaneuf, Pronger, Corvo, Del Zotto, Y. Weber
G: Kiprusoff, Backstrom, Brodeur
Bench: Smyth
Farm: L. Adam, B. Connelly, Tatar, Beach, Pulkinnen, Jeffrey, Toffoli; Subban, Pietrangelo, B. Smith, Gardiner; Rask, Dekanich, Lack.