The 2009 Top Four

Of course, it's already been a month since we saw John Tavares drafted by the Islanders, but now that we've seen his pictures at the youth development camps and saw that he has signed his first entry-level deal, we can now start talking about his emergence as a story heading into the 2010 season.

I don't think there is going to be much going against Tavares making the jump to the pro level right away, as the Islanders are going to be short on offense without him and he already carries the size and quite possibly the strength to succeed in the league right away. It will be very interesting to see who Tavares will line-up with, but you would have to assume that he'll get a young playmaker as his centre. This will be a big selling point to the fantasy season, especially if you can get both Tavares and his linemates. Personally, I would look to players like Josh Bailey, Doug Weight and/or Kyle Okposo to play with the number one overall pick.

Right now, I think Tavares' fantasy value is fairly high, even in the immediate future. I think he's better than Steven Stamkos, who was number one last summer, who finished with 46 points in 79 games, but I don't think he's quite the Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin type of impact player. Since Tavares will start on the island with little help, I wouldn't place too many high expectations on his total points, but I would say that he'd be good for about 60 to 70 points in 2010.

The Lightning decided to take the next best player in the Draft in defenseman, Victor Hedman. Hedman, a big strong defender, has plenty of upside to help the Lightning win games, but like Zdeno Chara, I think Hedman may be a bit slow out of the gates making an impact on the scoresheet and thus may not be the fantasy prospect everyone is waiting for from the blueline.

Hedman has stated his intentions to play in the NHL as soon as possible, but the Lightning have done all sorts of wheeling and dealing to house an already full blueline this summer, so it will be a true test of Hedman's ability to make the team right away. With Mattias Ohlund, Andrej Meszaros and Kurtis Foster already on the roster, Hedman will have both a challenge and some good mentors to learn from to help leap into the top six.

The big defenders are somewhat slow to become good point producers in the league of late, looking at Chara or even Jay Bouwmeester. I would go so far as to predict a very low year in points, just because his ice-time may be limited and his learning curve is going to be steep. So, as fantasy value, if he makes the team out of camp would only be about 10 points.

After a dismal season in Denver, the Avalanche will still be in somewhat of a transition period, especially since Joe Sakic has chosen to retire. Thankfully, they did manage to pick up a player who has drawn comparisons to Sakic and Steve Yzerman in Matt Duchene, touted as a complete centre with a lot of tools for the trade. Of course, it's way too easy to draw comparisons and put high expectations on a kid like this, but by the word of all the scouts, Duchene should be a good one.

Since the Avalanche are now without Sakic, this should open up the door opportunity door for Duchene to make the team straight out of camp. The Avalanche are building a good looking team around some of their key players, but a lot of their young players are in need of some seasoning and some more experience before they really start helping the team to win a lot of games. It's hard to tell where Duchene is going to fit right now, but I would expect him to be making quite the impact on his linemates, whoever they might be in October.

If I was to prognosticate a point total for Duchene in season one, I would keep it around the 30 to 40 range, just because of the uncertainty of the Avalanche organization at the moment.

The fourth overall selection at this summer's draft, Evander Kane, has also signed his first entry-level deal with the Thrashers and he will try and earn a spot with the team. Atlanta is slowly, but surely, building a young team that will compete with their rival teams in the Southeast Division and Kane's power forward like ability will go a long ways to help that dream become a reality. It's just hard to gauge when that will actually come to fruition, as he might still need another year to bulk up on his size and strength.

The Thrashers are not very deep at the forward position, which may give Kane ample opportunity to bring his game to the bigs right away, but they haven't been known to rush any of their prospects into the game, if they didn't have to. This really does go against his chances of hopping right into the NHL. Saying that, I'll probably hesitate adding any guesses to what he'll do next season until he makes the team.

Those are the top four picks in the 2009 Entry Draft and they all have signed their entry-level deals. Fortunately, if they don't play 10 games in the league this season, they won't lose a year on their deals, but I would imagine two, if not three, of the four will get a full season in. The fifth pick overall, Brayden Schenn, hasn't signed his deal yet, but he is at the Kings' youth camp this summer, which could indicate that his deal isn't too far away.