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Puck Amok Youth is served: Early look at top rookies
By Dave Wallace, Special to CNNSI.com Rookies usually don’t make the impact necessary for a fantasy team roster spot, but two freshmen deserve spots this year and several others vie for your attention. Everyone who thought a European right winger would lead the Florida Panthers in scoring, take a step forward. Everyone who thought that player would be Kristian Huselius, take another step forward. Uh, not so fast there. Named Rookie of the Month for October, Huselius leads the Panthers with nine goals and four assists through 16 games. That’s a pace for more than 40 goals. This is news, though not exactly new. Huselius was the Jaromir Jagr of the Swedish Elite League last year, but without the bad attitude. Or maybe he did have a bad attitude and I just can’t translate it from the Swedish. Whatever. Prescient fantasy owners that played him last month got some nice collateral production. Huselius tallied three goals on the power play and one shorthanded. Right now he stands at a plus-1 on a bad team, so he won’t hurt you there. Guys like the player he might become aren’t supposed to accrue penalty minutes, so any from him are a bonus. He’s probably better than your worst player right now, so take a chance and add him. I did. Tied with Huselius for the rookie points lead, albeit with two more games, is left wing Mark Bell of the Chicago Blackhawks. From a fantasy standpoint, he looks like a steady producer. In about two thirds of his games thus far, Bell’s notched at least a goal or assist. He’s also a surprising plus-9 playing for the Hawks’ third line, which sometimes matches up against the opposition’s top forwards. He looks like a scrappy player, the kind of guy who scores off deflections in front of the net. The 21 penalty minutes he has also suggest he’s that type of NHLer. It’s a style of play linemates Steve Thomas and Igor Korolev complement. The best hockey player England ever produced, and a personal favorite of mine as a hockey fan, Thomas is a marginal fantasy player. Korolev is a little less than marginal. So you might want to hesitate on adding Bell, but you can’t be blamed if you do. Especially with Chicago on the roll it’s on — still unbeaten at home as of this writing. Another left wing, Dany Heatley, shares an uncommon bond with Huselius: both are rookies leading their teams in scoring. That’s an accomplishment to drink to, except that Heatley isn’t old enough to drink yet. The 20-year-old Atlanta Thrasher isn’t a scoring machine, but he’s on pace to match his age in goals. His six assists also lead the team. Still, 10 points through 16 games from an unproven forward doesn’t make the hair stand up on your neck. Also, the former Wisconsin Badger plays on the NHL’s worst club, so he would kill a fantasy team’s plus/minus. He’s currently minus-11. File his name away for a late round pick next year or the year after. There’s something about left wings, because another one, Nashville’s Martin Erat, ranks among the rookie scoring leaders. Erat’s 10 points lean heavily toward assists, with eight. Nothing about Erat’s stats catch your eye: eight penalty minutes and a plus-1 rating, one power-play goal and only 10 shots. While it’s early to tell how his game could develop, he looks like another guy taking a beating in front of the net for periodic deflections of revenge. If things continue to go well, he’ll have a rookie campaign of about 50 points. It would make his next two years interesting to watch, though he’s still likely a ways from being a serious fantasy consideration. The one rookie who probably received serious fantasy consideration prior to the season is another Thrasher, Ilya Kovalchuk. In his favor, the potential Team Russia right wing does have seven goals among eight points. But that lopsided distribution, combined with his minus-9, indicates the European no-red-line, cherry-picker game he has right now. Of course, the NHL has a red line. Like Heatley, you’d need a serious producer just to offset his plus/minus hit. Not yet, but soon he’ll deserve a roster spot. After Huselius, maybe the most intriguing player among rookie scoring leaders is San Jose’s Jeff Jillson, a standout on the blue line for the last four editions of the Michigan Wolverines. He’s part of an impressive group that played with NHLers Mike Comrie, Marty Turco and Bill Muckalt. As far as fantasy stats, he’s the best of that group. The rookie points leader for defensemen, Jillson scored his two goals and six assists on the Sharks’ power play. Almost any defenseman worthy of significant power-play time should be on a fantasy roster, especially one on a division-leading team. A respectable 14 penalty minutes gives Jillson added value, and you hope the power-play time raises him above his even plus/minus rating. Get him. Do it now. In most fantasy leagues, Huselius and Jillson are rare waiver-wire talents likely available today. Even if the perennial rookie knock that the long season will wear them down applies, they’ll give you value for the next few months at least. Dave Wallace began to feel a little old when he realized that all of these rookies save one, Huselius, were born during the 1980s.
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