great read. going to make an offer to the AE owner!
These two enter the cage match this week (https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home...darnell-nurse/), and all I can say is of course Ekblad had to go on a 5 points in 4 game tear right before this published....lol.
For this one, I cited a lot of past player comparables, which I know some readers don't love. But I think at worst they're useful food for thought and often they're very eye-opening, like the one about no d-man in nearly 20 years who averaged 3.25+ SOG per game in 65+ games failing to ultimately hit 56+ points at least once in their career. Plus, when you're dealing with players who are still so young, their body of career work often doesn't lend itself to deep analysis.
Give the column a read and share your thoughts. Do you think Ekblad is a fantasy powder keg, ready to explode scoring-wise? Or is the fact that he failed to do anything great in his first four seasons enough to dissuade you, even despite his still young age? Can you picture Nurse being more than a Boychuk 2,0? Can he seize the Edmonton PP reins and turn into a Shea Weber or Dion Phaneuf? Let's hear your views.
DobberHockey Senior Writer (columnist since 2012)
Click here to read my weekly "Roos Lets Loose" columns, going live every Wednesday morning and consisting of a rotating schedule of a "forum buzz" column, a fantasy hockey mailbag, a tournament/poll, and an edition of Goldipucks and the Three Skaters: https://dobberhockey.com/category/ho...key-rick-roos/
great read. going to make an offer to the AE owner!
16 teams Dynasty H2H, 25 Pro 17 Farm 4C 4LW 4RW 6D 1G 6B
Cats: G, A, P, PPP, SOG, FW, HIT, BLK, W, GAA, SV%
C: Mackinnon, Matthews, Seguin(RW), Stamkos(LW/RW), Couturier
LW: E. Kane, Pacioretty, Rakell(RW), Miller(RW), Palat, Johnsson
RW: Voracek, Dadonov(LW), Pavelski(C), Eberle, Olofsson
D: Burns, Jones, Ristolainen, Gustafsson, Weber, Fowler, D.Toews
G: Hellebucyk, Varlamov, Mrazek
Farm: R.Suzuki, Garland, Kostin, A.Thomas, Appleton, Kahun, Marody, Dorofeyev, Paul, Lizotte, Fox, ¨Perunovich, Beaudin, Rosen, Walker, Brook
Thanks for the kind words. As I noted in the article, it's not an open and shut case as to whether Ekblad will start to produce much better, let alone when. What it boils down to is whether you place more value in his SOG accomplishments versus his lack of scoring in his first four seasons. After researching the column, I'm more willing to put stock in his SOG numbers portending success than I am in his lack of production thus far, especially given his still young age. Who knows - in a season or two Ekblad could be to young d-men what MacKinnon was to young forwards.
DobberHockey Senior Writer (columnist since 2012)
Click here to read my weekly "Roos Lets Loose" columns, going live every Wednesday morning and consisting of a rotating schedule of a "forum buzz" column, a fantasy hockey mailbag, a tournament/poll, and an edition of Goldipucks and the Three Skaters: https://dobberhockey.com/category/ho...key-rick-roos/
Defenders take time. Look at Hedman
Great read, as an ekblad owner, I love his upside, personally I think it's only a matter of time before it all clicks for him, not sure when yandle's contract expires but gotta think when it happens ekblad is gonna emerge.
12 Team HTH Keeper
(F's G=1 A=1, D G=1 A=1, All Skaters PPG=.5, SHG=.5 Goalies W=2 SO=3)
Dress 8 F, 4 D, 2 G weekly
forwards
Buchnevich ,Landeskog ,Toffoli , Nugent-Hopkins,N Schmaltz, yamamoto, bjorkstrand, dadonov ,fabbri, skinner, henrik borgstrom, timo meier, Klim Kostin ,Robert thomas, Valintin Zykov, Farabee,
Grigori Denisenko.
defense
provorov, ekblad, Dumba, Chabot, Schmidt , orlov, Skjei
goalies
hellebuyck, craig anderson,Darling,Kuemper, Reimer, husso ,sorokin.
I definitely think Ekblad here is the guy, he is very talented and young... I think he's just being under utilized on and playing more defensive minutes as Yandle is a getting more offensive minutes... wouldn't be the first time the weaker defensive player got more offensive utilization. I have some friends in Barrie ON and they can't say enough about his skillset from when he was there.
Also, Ekblad has looked very good over the past couple weeks and is scoring lately - against Toronto last night, he was downright scary in the offensive zone. (I was praying for an Andersen SO for my week h2h)