Roto Exclusive : Guest Contributions and Featured Articles

Devils – With the Lebron-esque farewell from Zach Parise and Petr Sykora yet to be signed, the Devils
are evidently missing the depth they saw last season and will be forced to promote one of Zajac,
Henrique or Zubrus to the team’s top powerplay. My money would be on Henrique after his playoff
performance reminiscent of a young Chris Drury.
Islanders –The Islanders transferred Bailey onto the wing of Nielsen and the two were producing similar
numbers to superstar teammate John Tavares. Frans Nielsen’s vision took off with 13 assists in 18 games
and Josh Bailey showed why he was taken ninth overall in 2008 with 18 points in his last 20 clashes.
Rangers – John Tortorella pressed every button he could find on Anton Stralman last year and it paid off
unimaginable dividends. Stralman’s defensive game improved tenfold and towards the end of the
season, the Swedish defender was able to get back to his offensive ways. He was very noticeable in the
postseason with the man advantage contributing 4 points in 20 games. While these totals may not be
awe-inspiring, expect the New Jersey cut-off to produce beyond belief.
Senators – As I had posted in my weekly Injury Ward article, Latendresse is expected to receive top-six
minutes in Ottawa while playing with the recently signed pivot Kyle Turris. The one-time first round pick
has only skated in 27 games in the past two seasons, but he could make for a true sleeper after scoring
25 goals in 55 games in his last full season with Minnesota.
Flyers – "I'm very happy that the Flyers give me that opportunity to play on a top line with 'G' and
'Hartsy' but, like I say, you never know what's going to happen in the season," Voracek said during a
media conference call in July. If this plays out like Voracek thinks it will, then we should be considering
him much higher than what Yahoo! has him at 197th.
Coyotes – The ‘Yotes will be operating their 29 th ranked powerplay
unit next season without the trigger man Ray Whitney and will likely
replace him with Ekman-Larsson. We’ve all heard about Oliver
Ekman-Larsson, but I just wanted to mention one more time that
he’s going to break out next season.
Penguins – Pascal Dupuis is this century’s Rob Brown. On a line with
Mario Lemieux in the late eighties, Brown put up 115 points while
riding the coattails of Mario’s 199 point year. Following that period, he was dealt to the Whalers where
he would never come close to reaching those totals again. Last year, Pascal Dupuis reached a career high
total of 59 points while finishing the year alongside Sidney Crosby. If Dupuis sees a number of shifts with
Crosby this year, expect another Rob Brown fashioned year from the player who was once traded with a
pick for Alex Bourret.
Blues – It’s almost as if there won’t be enough ice time to go around for all the stars in St. Louis this
season. With the arrival of Russian professional Vladimir Tarasenko, Ken Hitchcock will be able to call
three lines of players who are capable of putting up over sixty points. Come draft day, this will be a
game of blindfolded darts as it’s anyone’s guess as to who will be the go-to line on opening day.
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