[Mailbag] Ask Laidlaw Anything

[metaldude26]

Two questions:
1. Which of Goldobin or Meier do you see making the Sharks fulltime the earliest (not necessarily this season)?
2. Are you putting money on Patrick Kane to win the scoring title this year?

1. Goldobin ahead of Meier. He already has AHL and other pro experience and is slated to get more this season if he doesn't make the team out of camp. Meier has another year of junior ahead and the smart choice for San Jose would be to let him continue to develop.

2. No money is going down on Kane to win the scoring title. It has nothing to do with his legal situation, I'd put my vote against Kane in long before this cropped up. Simply put Kane has only ever scored above a point-per-game pace when the Blackhawks have won the Cup. So he seems to require a loaded team to reach his potential. Looking for regression from the Hawks and Kane this season. There are also just WAY better options to pick from. They don't have futures up on Bodog yet but you can rest assured I'll have my preseason bets published in the ramblings at some point this fall.

[metaldude26]

Goalies!! I need some goalies to target.. What do you think of Lack, Talbot, M.Jones, Gillies, and anone else who may come out of nowhere soon..??

I'm not really all that into any of these guys to be honest.

Gillies is a really nice prospect but I'm not sure he's ready to pop "out of nowhere" just yet. Carolina should suck so that kind of squashes Lack, plus I'm not sure he's even better than Cam Ward. Talbot's never been a starter and Edmonton probably won't be a playoff team this year. Jones may not even be the best goalie in San Jose though I'm convinced that Stalock stinks as far as legit starter potential goes so I'm highest on Jones than anyone you've listed.

Just a couple of names to consider. Jonas Enroth backing up in LA. Could be lucrative. Zane McIntyre is slated to be the backup in Boston. Not sure you should really be pushing for Boston's backup but alas we're digging deep here. Sergei Bobrovsky seems incapable of giving us a full season of dominance so Anton Forsberg needs to be considered an option should Bob go down. Matt Murray is the guy who will be handed the keys to the Penguins bus should Fleury get hurt.

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Multi-Cat League in my Signature - G, A, +/-, PPP, PIM, SOG, HITS, BLKS

Please rank these 3 players short and long term: Wheeler (RW), E.Kane (LW), JVR (LW)

Wheeler
JVR
Kane

I'm tempted to put Kane higher since he offers the complete package but I've yet to see him stay healthy or really mesh with specific linemates. Maybe that comes in Buffalo, I'm letting someone else risk it.

[metaldude26]

Keeper league, and I'm lauching a 2 or 3 years rebuild. Simple stats for forwards : 2 points a goal, 1 an assist.
A guy is interested in my Nash. I've been trying to land his Johansen for quite a while.
First question : would you swap Nash for Johansen without hesitation?

There could also be smaller pieces involved, and maybe I could land Anders Lee or Zibanejad in the process. Who would you rather have?

Thanks for the advice!

I don't mind the Nash/Johansen swap. Nash has consistently proven himself a brilliant goal scorer but hasn't been able to push for top tier status for total points. Obviously scoring goals is huge in your league but Johansen is no slouch there. If you can get added juice in the deal that just makes it over the top.

Probably Lee over Zibanejad because of the weight added to goals. Lee has 30-goal upside.

[metaldude26]

What are your expectations for Anders Lee and Brock Nelson over the next couple years?

Who has the brighter future between Kuznetsov and E. lindholm?

I see Nelson transition into more of a third-line shutdown center type of role. He scored at like a 30-point pace in the second half of the season once he was knocked off the top power play unit, where he boosted his stats with some easy points. I don't see so many easy points in his future. Treating him like more of a 30-40-point guy.

Lee has much more upside as a scorer even if he's skating away from John Tavares. He gets to the dirty areas more and gets much more pucks on goal. Treating him like a 45-point guy with upside to reach much higher if it all clicks.

*

Kuznetsov over Lindholm, especially because Kuznetsov is skating in the higher-scoring environment in Washington. Should be pretty close between the two this season I suspect though.

[metaldude26]

Steve,

Riley Sheahan. What does he become? 3rd line Center ceiling or does he cement himself at some point as a 2C?
Dats and Zetts are aging and Larkin is lurking as a soon to be Center on a line in Detroit. Where does Sheahan fall in at?

My thoughts are long term he's a 3C. Your thoughts?

There's potential for more but it just doesn't seem like he'll get there. Datsyuk will be back soon enough which means any run at C2 will be short-lived and Brad Richards looms as a potential fill in for Datsyuk in the mean time. Larkin certain looms as a long term option.

It's possible the seas part for Sheahan one of these years but he only has so much upside. He isn't a true #1 so he may never find himself with even #1 power play chances. Not sure I'd be waiting for things to line up for him when the upside is like Zajac's best season in New Jersey.

[Dobber]

Weigh in on the odds of that Cam Talbot crashes and burns, and instead one of Scrivens (rebound) or Nilsson runs with it by Decemberish

[metaldude26]

Are the Jays going all the way?

ps: you gotta come back to Toronto for drinks soon!

Playoffs? Seems likely. And if they escape the Wild Card game by winning their division then I'd give them a 1/8 chance. Reality is it almost doesn't matter how talented they are, once playoffs hit it's anyone's game.

A trip down to Toronto seems in order this fall. Nothing set in stone yet but I'll let you know.

[metaldude26]

1) Who would you have in a dynasty league (standard Yahoo stats plus Hits, SOGs, Blocks, FWs)? Duchene or Kopitar

2) What is the outlook for John Gibson? Does he have any value over the next couple of years given the ANA goalie situation? I'm debating whether he should be kept in a keeper league.

Thanks in advance!

1. Kopitar, he does more in those peripherals and could be in line for a huge season here.

2. Depends on the number of bench/farm spots. The Ducks seem content to flood their organizational crease with good cheap options and you can understand why as it has paid off for them allowing them to spend big to keep Getzlaf and Perry but remain competitive by not spending in goal. That does mean Gibson hasn't been gifted anything but his skills continue to develop. He'll need an injury, maybe two but the chance is there for him to run with a gig so I would say he has value and the payoff is potentially huge.

[loco man]

What are the Sedin's value in a points only Dynasty?

Can they put up similar numbers as last year for the next couple seasons? That would be good enough for me, as I am talks to acquire them, but it means losing youth (Pastrnak will be involved)

Thanks

[metaldude26]

Ok, I'll give you an actual fantasy question this time.

For the league in my sig, I have to drop five players for redrafting. Who are my five drops? Obviously MSL is an easy one, so you really only have to think about four.

St. Louis
Wilson
Yakupov
Eriksson
Killorn

but if you can't bring yourself to dump Yakupov then Filppula.

[metaldude26]

In my keeper I'm thinking of moving a Goalie

I have Holtby, Fleury and Lundqvists. It's a cap league so the King has a high price tag.

Fleury and Lundqvist both have 17 back to backs next season so I'm a little concerned about that.

I definitely don't want to move Holtby, I like his situation too much. So between MAF and Lundqvist, who would you trade?

The return I would be looking for is a top forward, maybe Hall, Duchene, Schwartz, Giroux and a pick. But it seems that I can only get that return for Fleury. Lundqvist, because of his high $$ has less trade value than MAF. Will the penguins be a win machine next year? I'm so torn.

Would it be wise to roll with Lundqvist and Holtby in my league?

Or just keep all three?

As is always the case in these "who to trade?" questions, my first response would be, "who can fetch the most value?"

Float that you are shopping your starters out there and see what comes in for offers. You may find that there simply isn't any value to be had at this point and that you hold fast. Remember your team doesn't need to be set at this point. It seems more likely that someone will be desperate to fill a goalie slot mid-season after an injury and that would be the best time to strike, especially if Lundqvist is putting together a vintage season.

You can seemingly get a good return for Fleury now though so that makes the decision pretty easy especially as he's not going to post another 10-shutout season.

Lundqvist's price tag makes him the guy you'd prefer to deal but this needs to be about value. Something like Hall and a good pick for Fleury would go over pretty well.

[metaldude26]

First thanks for doing that...

Here is my question. What would be your top 10 prospect to draft after McDavid an Eichel this year ?

Cheers.

Is this a top 10 prospects from 2015? Top 10 who haven't yet played an NHL game? Top 10 calder candidates?

[metaldude26]

Hi. Thanks for doing this.

What may i expect, for this year, from Mats Zuccarello
(Points, Line partners, power play Time)

Good day

Seems pretty likely a repeat of last season for Zuccarello, which means lots of time with Nash and Brassard, second unit PP time and somewhere around 45-55 points though likely right in the middle of that range. My projection is 53 points.

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Should I keep Sedin over Hedman in my league?

I don't have a first round pick.

Going to need more league information to solve this one.

[glorybe23]

thanks for the mailbag metaldude!

Question: Who are your top 5 unsigned players you feel will be signed by a team before opening night?

[metaldude26]

Weigh in on the odds of that Cam Talbot crashes and burns, and instead one of Scrivens (rebound) or Nilsson runs with it by Decemberish

It's pretty likely that Talbot crashes to some degree. His numbers in a small sample behind a really strong team were off the charts last year. He's going to have to do a lot more behind a lot less over a much larger sample. He could hang onto the job though. It doesn't seem like any goalie is going to be totally productive in Edmonton this season. They'll be tremendously improved but not a playoff team yet. Playoffs in '17. Contenders in '18.

I have little faith in Scrivens stealing the job away. Nilsson is an interesting dark horse here. I haven't seen enough of him to voice an opinion at this point.