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!

A Question for the Sherpa II

Nobody is physically going to ask me questions it seems, so I head back to my keywords to get to the site and think of that as someone asking me a question. I think that's fair... and not a bad idea, either! This next question comes from Toronto, "Jakob Markstrom or Chet Pickard?" I am going to assume that this is going to be in regards to a keeper pool and who you may want to pick up as your picking for the future.

Both goalies were taken this past summer in the Draft, Pickard was the first goalie taken in the Draft by Nashville, 18th overall. Markstrom was projected to be a first rounder, but ended up going as the first pick in the second round to Florida. Both players represented their country in the World Junior Championships over the Christmas holidays, Pickard for Canada and Markstrom for Sweden.

If I was to wager a guess as to who is going to make an impact earlier than the other, I would have to say it's Pickard, just because of the team he was picked by and the situation there. Pickard, chosen by the Preds, will be looked at on a team that is never quite sure about their goaltending situation from one year to another. They've been through Tomas Vokoun (who is in Florida, holding up Markstrom's progress to the pros), Chris Mason, Dan Ellis and now Pekka Rinne. The Predators do have a lot of talent in their prospective nets, with Jeremy Smith waiting in the wings as well, so all it takes is a good camp to really make that jump.

Markstrom will be joining a Panthers outfit that is quite content on riding Vokoun and Craig Anderson for a while. Markstrom will likely stay in Sweden until the Panthers are ready for him to take on a big role and he may have to overcome that black eye he gave to himself (in the eyes of the North American viewership) when he was diving around the ice against Canada in the World Junior finals.

Take Pickard, solely on the fact that the Preds like to give opportunities to young goalies when their current crop is struggling.

A Question for the Sherpa I

I thought it was pretty interesting to read in my search keywords that landed someone to this site was 'if you had marian gaborik in your hockey pool would you trade him?' This does pose an interesting question, as the oft-injured, yet high-scoring forward Marian Gaborik has run into some injury problems this year and is in the middle of many trade rumours and new contract speculation.

This season, Gaborik has only played in two games for the Wild, registering only a goal. The Wild have gone on to play well without their star forward, as new stars like Mikko Koivu and Antti Miettinen have emerged to pick up the slack in Minnesota. Gaborik is also in the final year of his contract, which does carry a cap hit of $6.333 million. As Gaborik sits with his "lower body" injury, which we are only to assume it is his problematic groin, it's understandable to ask yourself, 'do I keep him or do I move him?'

The question itself does have a few a factors to consider... 1) are you able to drop him completely in your pool? 2) do you have a trade in place with another team in your pool? 3) is your pool salary cap based? 4) is he worth keeping on your roster in a keeper pool?

Now, I don't think you would want to immediately want to drop Gaborik from your team altogether if you're not going to receive any compensation for him. It's a gamble that's hard to take, since his injury is only keeping him out on a day-to-day basis. You could speculate a lot at this point about what the injury is and whether or he'll be traded while he is injured or not. I would like to think that if he does come back, sooner rather than later, he'll want to come back with some vigor, enough to make teams interested in him for a move. This is a contract year for this European player and we all know that the Euros like to play well in their contract years.

If you received a trade offer for Gaborik in your pool, I would seriously consider it. You have to take into consideration what you are getting in return for Gaborik and I wouldn't sell the farm on him quite yet. He does have pool value, with a fair amount of risk as well. Personally, I don't like to carry too much risk in my pool players, despite high rewards, just for matters like this. A big question mark looming over the head of Gaborik would lead me to believe a trade would be beneficial for the remainder of the year, as you may get someone who is more capable of playing more games in the year.

Value for salary cap hit could be considered another story, however. Does a player like Gaborik deserve to be on your team with a cap value that is in the top third in the league? No. I'm sure that you could find better value for money than Gaborik. He is definitely capable of 40-50 goals, if he plays all 82 games in the season, but we all know that it isn't going to happen this year and an unknown contract status seems to be hurting his desire to play as well. However, if Gaborik is to move to another team that would pass him through their physical with flying colours, I would immediate turn tail and pick him up. There are some teams rumoured to be interested in him that I would definitely give him full marks for playing on.

On a keeper league team, you should have the ability to keep Gaborik benched, while you use one of your other key players in a scoring spot that he would normally take. For the last reason of moving teams this year, I wouldn't dump Gaborik at all. Sure, he isn't very good to you now, but if you're in a keeper pool, I would try and move him myself, trying to make a move to a stronger team for equal value of a healthy Gaborik. Like I said, he has value, which wouldn't be discounted if he went to another team that gave him a clean bill of health. It's anyone's guess where he'll end up, but if I'm falling behind this season in the keeper pool, I would see what kind of value I could get for him, while I wait for his return.

There really is no sense re-iterating what I had posted as a conclusion. I like Gaborik, he's done wonderful things for me in fantasy teams in the past. I was kind of disappointed I didn't pick him on my draft team, but now I don't feel quite so bad, as my Draft only has two waiver periods (Week Nine and Week Eighteen), where we can drop and pick up players. If we could do it at any time, I may have likely dropped him for someone who wasn't taken (ahem, Mike Modano) at all.