Im looking at trying to add him in a salary cap league (in sig). His opportunity seems pretty decent and his pim contribution is a nice basis to build on in our format (G A PPP SHP Sog Pim +/-). I imagine his point totals will increase as his role does but that being said he hit the 15 minute mark last year which for me is basically where you start to push into L1 level of contributions being expected. I know big men take longer to "pop" (Oh god there must be a better way to word that ) and his 30 this year did come in less games (60) which puts him closer to half a point per game which is pretty safe imo as long as theyre dominating another cat. So here are my issues. First we dont count hits- thats not Ritchies fault obviously- lol- but it does mean when Im getting caught up in the hype talk it may be in larger part due to a cat we dont even count. Second and this is most important- his sogs are fugly. When hes cracking fifteen minutes with almost two on the pp- a shot and a half per game comes in well below where Im targetting for a guy of his calliber. that projects to 120ish over a full season. I typically aim for 200 as a floor but at his price point I could even settle for a two per game rate that ends up at 160, 170ish.

For people who watch the Anaheim games- is this going to get better? Is this a matter of opportunity/role or is this more inherent towards playing style. Two years ago he inched up to 2 sogs/game. This year and the last have settle back at 1.5. Am I aiming too high? Is he a guy you build around more in hits leagues? The asset I was looking at trading was kreider for Ritchie plus (as an aside I was looking at Kreider/Ho Sang/Player X For Ritchie/Hintz/Donato- although Hintz scares me as a shooter too :P).

Thoughts???