It's been a busy August/September and you can tell by this being only my second pool guide review for the coming NHL season. Nevertheless, I'll continuing comparing guides, as I get them.On Monday, I picked up the The Sportscaster Preview and Fantasy Guide for this year, what formerly was the Score's fantasy pool guide, something to go up against the Hockey News guide, which is generally my favourite of the bunch each year.
After a monster season before injury and assuming that he'll be in the line-up for opening night, the Sports Forecaster has also chosen Sidney Crosby as their best player to take in the hockey pools, projecting him to come away with a 104-point season, narrowly beating out Alex Ovechkin, who they have rocking a 102-point season.
No real big surprises in the top 10 forwards on their list, as Steven Stamkos, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Patrick Kane, Evgeni Malkin and NIcklas Backstrom round out the selections. All eight are very reasonable top end picks, some of which have been outlined as pretty good picks as 1st overall.
John Tavares has been chosen to jump into the top-20 in forwards scoring, projected to have an 83-point season, which should make him into an attractive selection in the pool this season. Matt Duchene, one of the Hockey News' breakout players is down in 26th with a 79-point projection for the year.
On the blueline, the Sports Forecaster have reward Keith Yandle's good season with the top projection among defensemen, coming in at 66 points. Yandle is definitely making a name for himself in the desert and he will have to lead the way in Phoenix, if they are going to be successful this year.
Rounding out the top 10 among defensemen on this list, Dustin Byfuglien, Niklas Kronwall, Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Weber, Mike Green, Cam Fowler, Drew Doughty, Kris Letang and Zdeno Chara. It looks like we should be preparing for a changing of the guard, so to speak, with Pietrangelo and Fowler making some big jumps, not to mention Kronwall assuming top spot in Detroit. A very interesting set of prognostications, to say the least.
In goal, we have a bold prediction to lead the way, as the Sports Forecaster likes Corey Crawford for 94 points (41 wins and 6 shutouts) this season, assuming that the Blackhawks are a much better team than they were in the 2011 season. Very bold, as there are lots of new pieces on that team and Crawford will have to really step up and be something to work out those numbers.Carey Price, Ryan Miller, Ilya Bryzgalov, Henrik Lundqvist, Marc-Andre Fleury, Miikka Kiprusoff, Jaroslav Halak, Pekka Rinne and Martin Brodeur round out the top 10 for points for a goalie on their list, which isn't a bad list either.
Another bold prediction in the rookie category, as the Sports Forecaster has went the way of the blueline to lead freshmen scoring, picking David Rundblad of the Senators to score 34 points, narrowly moving ahead of Ryan Johansen of the Blue Jackets, who had 33 points. I like this move, it is quite bold and exciting, adding some depth to the blueline discussion. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Oilers is listed with 29 points, Ryan Ellis of the Predators is at 28 points, while Gabriel Landeskog of the Avalanche is at 27 points. Not a lot of faith for the rookies, but spaced out nicely for good consideration.
If a magazine is going to set itself away from its competition, it will have to make some bold predictions and that is what the Sports Forecaster has done this year. The other big plus, as always, is their pull out of the top 500 skaters and 50 goalies. That's always a big help in the drafting process, something to check off or cross out. I would recommend this issue this year, especially if you want to come with a different philosophy into your draft this year.
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