Questions About Nathan Horton

Hi,

I often check out your website for a good account of what is going on in the NHL ( my most favourite league ! ). Anyway, I have two questions for you in regards to Nathan Horton of the Florida Panthers :

a. Is he on the top line for the Cats ?

b. Any idea as to why he is pointless, at this point ? ( Perhaps it is because he is not on the top line, among other reasons ??? )

Anyway, I appreciate whatever information you can provide me about Horton, and I await your reply, at your earliest convenience.

Thank-you, and keep up the great work.

Brian G.

P.S. Horton is a late-round pick for me in my draft, but I am still curious as to what is happening with this guy.

First of all, thanks to Brian for the questions. I'd be more than happy to help out.

So far, it looks to be a pretty rough start for Nathan Horton in Florida. Through four games, he's pointless, has 10 shots on goal and is a -4 in the +/- column. This really isn't what anyone expected, including myself, as I had him pegged for at least 50 points this season. Sure, he's a 3-point game away from getting his numbers back to a comfortable position, but still...

The Panthers as a whole have not been very productive going into Monday's night game against Tampa Bay, having only scored a total of eight goals in the first four games, including the Premiere games in Helsinki versus Chicago.

Horton has been getting some regular ice-time, by the looks of his numbers, getting anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes of time for the Panthers. Horton has been seeing regular power play time in the first four games, so there isn't any issue there. Horton doesn't kill penalties, so he should be fresh for most 5-on-5 situations.

Horton has also opened up all four games on a line with David Booth and Stephen Weiss, which should be considered the number one line for the Panthers. Both of his linemates have also struggled, scoring only a goal each in the first four games, so there is a bit of a power outage there in total, rather than in one spot.

If there was a reason as to why these guys are running dry, I would have to think that it could be a couple of things. The European travel likely didn't help their legs at all. It's been a long month for the Panthers and they are still trying to find their North American body clocks. Also, the Panthers are not an exceptionally deep team. Many opponents are more likely to fixate their best defensive units against the Panthers' top line, shutting them down, giving themselves a greater chance to pull out a win in the end. Since the Cats are 1-3-0 to start the season, you can tell that the plan is working.

I think the key to the successes of the Panthers' top line will be Booth, as he showed a lot of people that he had the talent to turn up his game at just about any time, on a team that suffered through some offensive droughts last year. Horton has plenty of natural talent as well, so these guys should be able to breakout sooner, rather than later, especially since Michal Frolik is finally giving the opposition something to think about.

I'm still sticking to my 50-point prediction for Horton, which should make him a real good bargain, if you picked him really late in your draft. That's a pretty good job. Also, as a late round pick, depending how deep your draft goes, you shouldn't be expecting too much from those picks. In my Draft, Horton was taken in the 10th round (of 17), 165th overall, so he wasn't terribly high on a lot of lists in my pool either. He is in the neighbourhood though, since he was taken in the same round as Kristian Huselius, Ryan Smyth and Alex Ponikarovsky.

A further thought to keep in mind, Horton was in the middle of a few trade rumours in the late part of the Summer, including one that would have seen him go to Vancouver. I find this very interesting, mostly because there is some suggestion that a guy with a deal that lasts for another four years is not happy with something there or that Panthers brass is not happy with him. Where there is smoke, there may be a little bit of fire. That could be good reason to not be playing well...

Hopefully this helps you out, Brian!