Nick ritchie

[ridethesnow]

Whats going on here? He seems to have regressed last year. Obviously it was a rough year in anaheim so maybe averaging 30points is decent but his points went from 200+ in his first 2 seasons to 127 last year. I can swallow the 30 points if he's pumping out 200+ hits but 127hits dosn't cut it. I am considering dropping him for a top 10 draft pick to slot into my bench. He will probably turn into banger league gold the moment i drop him. Anyone think i should hold him and find another player to drop?

[golfguy1672]

He held out. Players never seem to recover from that. Plus Anaheim was a dumpster fire. I expect him to be 45+ points this season with all the hits possible

[ChuckLemieux]

45+ would be nice but I think he will continue hovering around 35-40 points and sooner than later, Time on ice and opportunities will be an issue for him as the young guns ( kase, terry, comtois, steel) will eat bigger and bigger minutes.

I would personally roll the dice with a draft pick

[ericdaoust]

I disagree with the statement about him regressing. He had 31 points in 60 games... a 40+ point pace. Regarding the hits, maybe it's him focusing a bit more on developing his offense, maybe it was impacted by the holdout somehow. There's a lot of uncertainty here about how he'll continue to evolve. FWIW I drafted him in a dynasty league draft this fall as a prospect with breakout potential. The league is offense-heavy but has hits/blocks. Hoping for a nice combo player.

[Doug Glatt]

Big guys take longer to develop. The holdout was probably not helpful. Everyone on his team regressed last year yet he actually had a decent uptick in my format from a ppg standpoint. I think there is still upside there and he's a nice guy to have on the bench with ANA being the off-nights champs again in H2H. I am holding unless something worthwhile comes in.

[lucafen4]

This guy really seems like someone in search of his identity.
Forget hits, look at his SOG... they've tanked since his rookie season.
he seems more lost than Virtanen in Vancouver.

One can hope he can finally pull it together consistently so that he can be a 2 SOG; 2 HIT/GM 25g, 25a guy. Anything more than that now would be gravy for Anh.

[ridethesnow]

Big guys take longer to develop. The holdout was probably not helpful. Everyone on his team regressed last year yet he actually had a decent uptick in my format from a ppg standpoint. I think there is still upside there and he's a nice guy to have on the bench with ANA being the off-nights champs again in H2H. I am holding unless something worthwhile comes in.

Yeah i guess its probably worth holding to see at least how the seasons rolling for him since its a pretty defining season now for him i would think and maybe swap him for a gem FA if he falters. Thanks guys, super helpful.