January 2010 Waiver Draft Report Card

Post date: Feb 03, 2010 10:24:23 PM

January 2010 Waiver Report Card

With February upon us, and the wheeling and dealing fresh in our review mirrors, Novarks.com will begin to sift through the mountain of evidence that remains in an effort to foolishly declare the winners and losers without the benefit of hindsight.

1) Team Chris: This team most severely felt the impact of the moves made around it. Coming into the Waiver Draft with a tenuous hold on first place, GM Jaques had to know that Team Hallman was going to pull out all the stops to win this year. GM Jaques was in the nasty position of having to respond to the moves of his competition, and it felt as though he was playing catch up throughout the day. Jaques managed to add some pieces, but none of them fill this writer with confidence that they can keep this team in 1^st for the next two months of hockey. Martin Havlat, Brad Boyes, Dan Boyle Guillamme Latendresse, Anton Stralman just doesn’t have the same ring to it when compared to the moves that GM Hallman made. Of course Jaques was far stingier when it came to surrendering draft picks in comparison, and coupling that with a solid keeper roster will at the very least ensure a likely top two finish in 2010, with a very respectable base to build upon and challenge again in 2011.

Best Move: Obtaining Martin Havlat and Anton Stralman for essentially a 2^nd rd pick. It was likely a higher pick than Jaques was hoping to pay, but Havlat and Stralman are solid pieces when you consider the spare parts going back the other way were Drew Stafford and Zbynek Michalek.

Worst Move: Dropping Nik Antropov for Latendresse. This move appears to be sideways at best, as a cold hand was dropped for a hot one. The reality is this move is just not significant enough to provide the gains Jaques needed.

Overall Grade C+: While Jaques certainly has maintained a solid competitive balance heading into 2010-2011, he did not do enough to hold off his stiffest competition, Team Hallman. How often does one have this strong a chance to win it all? Perhaps Jaques could have parlayed a few more pieces here.

2) Team Hallman: GM Steve Hallman made his intentions quite clear. The time is now, and he will not let this pool slip away without attempting every possible maneuver available to him. Hallman recognized that his long hold on 1^st place had slipped for a reason and he filled every obvious hole, and a few holes that would have been successes on other teams while he was at it. In all Hallman added ten fresh faces to an already impressive cast. The additions included Tomas Kaberle, Daniel Alfreddson, Jason Spezza and Ryan Kesler to name a few, while surrendering no major pieces from his existing roster (with the possible exception of Anze Kopitar). This team has clearly established itself as the team to beat, in no uncertain terms. Hallman may be in for a long rebuild after this season, but it will taste mighty sweet if his team stays healthy and finishes what it started.

Best Move: Adding Alfreddson and Kaberle. These two additions are not only consistent steady point producers, they are affordable, both under $5 million. This allowed Hallman to add some other key pieces.

Worst Move: Moving Brad Boyes and Braydon Coburn for Patrick Sharp and Kurtis Foster. This move is more sideways than anything. But if Hallman wins the pool by a few points, it could turn out to have been genius.

Overall Grade: A GM Hallman managed to mold the best team on paper for the stretch run. While he did mortgage a large chunk of the future, he has managed to assemble a solid roster of keepers, and is now an odds on favorite to win the pool. Only a 2^nd place finish would cause this grade to slip below an A.

3) Team Nate: This team rode a very hot goaltender and some above average production to within sight of first place over the month of January, but fell to over 30 points back by the time the Waiver Draft rolled around. GM Weckworth, ever the rock of balance and level-headedness, decided against joining the free for all spending spree that he could have participated in. However Weckworth did manage to add a few pieces via trade that improved his team, and likely ensured a top 4 finish. Perhaps the best piece acquired was the affordable keeper option Marian Hossa, as his roughly $5 million cap hit is very manageable, and in the short term Hossa will likely post respectable results. As well Team Nate managed to pick affordable top six (and well documented Novarks.com fan favorite) Steve Downie. Any player getting regular opportunities to play with Steven Stamkos, Martin St Louis and Vinny Lecavalier is a solid acquisition.

Best Move: Acquiring Hossa for essentially a 2^nd Rd Pick. This move provides production now, and options for next season.

Worst Move: Acquiring Kris Letang. Letang has been disappointing production-wise thus far, but his cheap cap hit combined with only costing GM Weckworth a 5^th Rd pick saves this from being a terrible deal in any way.

Overall Grade: A Not getting caught up in trying to keep pace with the teams ahead of him when 30 points back, along with picking up Hossa and Downie, makes this Waiver a success. Weckworth managed to likely accomplish a reasonable goal for this season, and maintain a solid nucleus and draft portfolio for next.

4.) Team Dave: This team has long been a favorite of some of the writers at Novarks.com, but a January swoon that left it over 30 points out of 1^st along with GM Dave Evans not being present at the Waiver Draft itself has likely sunk any remaining chances this team had of winning the title. GM Evans was unable to match his competition move for move, and as a result may have sold a few too many pieces of his draft to win 3^rd or 4^th place. Evans managed to add some strong pieces to his team in Andrei Markov and Marc Savard, but did not fill enough holes to make any type of serious run at 1^st place. As a result there is a solid keeper nucleus here, but a noticeable absence of high end draft picks in both 2010 and 2011. While Team Dave will likely finish in a top 4 position, it will be important for Evans to try and move some of the extra pieces he now has in the off-season to keeper weak teams to try and recoup some picks.

Best Move: Acquiring Marc Savard. Savard could be a keeper with a manageable cap number going forward.

Worst Move: Evans’ best move was also his worst move, as he sacrificed far too much in the way of draft picks in this deal.

Overall Grade: D This team did not do enough to compete down the stretch, overpaid for key pieces and essentially sacrificed a significant amount of its draft future to maintain the status quo. Having a solid keeper core saves this from being a complete disaster.

5.) Team Josh: A quiet waiver in general, at times one was unsure if GM MacNaughton had even showed up. We aren’t sure if MacNaughton was either unwilling or unable to pull the trigger on some deals, but at the end of the day this team made its three waiver moves, and headed home. As a result, a team that has come from the depths of the pool to settle nicely into fifth place plugged a hole or two, and will now sit and hope that it can heat up again and compete for third or fourth place. This might be a bit difficult to do, as both the teams in front of it and one or two behind it made some significant moves on the trade front along with their waiver moves to get better. The wavier moves that were made could turn out be solid though. Picking up Anti Niemmi could pay dividends in March if Blackhawks goalie Cristobal Huet falters or becomes injured.

Best Move: Somewhat of a no-brainer as Christ Stewart was the most productive player available on the waiver wire, but a move that immediately makes this team better nonetheless.

Worst Move: Similar to the November waiver, an inability to move Cam Ward. It appeared the market for Ward dried up completely in the last two months, as Carolina shows no signs of being a playoff contender. MacNaughton’s only hope is that he can find an interested party in the off-season before the keeper deadline; otherwise Ward will slip away for nothing.

Overall Grade: B GM MacNaughton clearly wasn’t willing to sell out to get better for the present, or the future. This team has an outside chance of finishing top 4, but the reality is there are a few trade chips that could have brought in picks that stayed put. That nasty side bet with Team Jesse rears its ugly head once more.

6.) Team Neutron: Dare we call him delusional? Rookie GM Steve Lavigne made it clear he intends to show he can compete with the big boys in this league, trading some future to pick up some assets for the present, and even tossing around some side bets, displaying a confidence and swagger that had not been displayed until now. Neutron made two significant deals, firstly bringing in a solid goaltender in Craig Anderson to compliment cornerstone Nicklas Backstrom, and secondly picking up assist machine Tomas Plekanec. There were some puzzling pieces to that second deal with Team Loader, as goalie Carey Price came along with Plekanec. If nothing else this provides potential insurance for the stretch if either Anderson or Backstrom comes down with an injury. Also, the addition of Benoit Pouliot is intriguing. Has this former 4^th overall pick found his stride in Montreal? Lavigne sure seems to think so.

Best Move: Picking up Craig Anderson for a 2^nd rd pick. Anderson’s cap hit of $1.8 million for this season and next makes him an affordable starting goalie in a good situation on a young emerging Colorado team. Keeping Anderson would save Neutron roughly $4 million in cap over the more expensive Backstrom.

Worst Move: The Plekanec trade. Neutron surrendered some significant draft picks for Plekanec, Price and Tobias Enstrom. One has to assume that Plekanec has keeper consideration for this team, but will his salary next season be too high for his production? If he is not a keeper the 2011 1^st rd pick is a hefty price to pay.

Overall Grade: C+ While the newfound swagger is indeed impressive, one has to wonder if GM Lavigne might have overvalued his team a bit, and hurt his future in the process.

7) Team Daly: Injuries and poor production from some key contributors conspired against this team and has buried it deep in the bottom half of the league. As a result GM James Daly played it safe and began moving some pieces to build for the future. However before Daly even managed to get started, the Hockey Gods conspired once more, as key asset Mike Cammaleri went down with a knee injury in the hours leading up to the Waiver draft. However this did not prevent Daly from stockpiling some higher end draft picks in deals with Team Hallman and Team Jesse, and he has set up a clear drafting advantage by loading up virtually all of his picks in the first 10 rounds of the draft. This will allow Team Daly to control its own fate come September, although Daly would have liked to pick up another 1^st or 2^nd rounder with Cammaleri.

Best Move: Moving Mike Ribiero, Tobias Enstrom and Tyler Myers for essentially two 2^nd Rd Picks and a 6^th Rd pick. It was unlikely that Daly had any intention of keeping either of these gifted young defensemen, and managed to snag two solid draft picks in return.

Worst Move: Despite the solid return, moving Tyler Myers could come back to haunt this team. Myers has two years left on his rookie contract, and to this point has certainly shown he could have 60 point capability as a defenseman. Certainly not a move that has too many alarm bells ringing however.

Overall Grade: B+ The inability to secure a 1^st round pick despite being in clear sell mode is the only failing aspect of this waiver draft effort, which prevents the grade from getting into the A range.

8)Team Greg: This team certainly did not blow the door off this draft, but there just weren’t a whole lot of significant trading chips for GM Mady to move. Mady was fielding offers from GM’s, and the early rumours of a possible Zach Parise move were obviously unfounded. In the end, the contracts of Mady’s trading chips made it difficult for him to get the value he may have been seeking in return. Both Brad Richards and Dan Boyle did end up being moved, but Mady could not get the significant 1^st or 2^nd round pick returns that other players with similar production – but lower salaries – were achieving for their respective teams. This leaves Team Greg in a bit of an awkward situation, the keeper roster on this team doesn’t quite match up with its peers, and with no significant additions to that effect, or high end draft picks coming its way, this team faces an uphill battle going into the 2010-2011 season.

Best Move: Acquiring a 4^th Rd Pick in 2010 and 2011 for Dan Boyle. It was unlikely Boyle ever entered into GM Mady’s keeper considerations at his current salary, so getting two decent picks was a nice move. However one has to be surprised that Mady couldn’t get a higher pick here.

Worst Move: Brad Richards’ salary made him difficult to move, and this likely has career year written all over it, but the return here in these eyes was not high enough considering his production. Mady did manage to pick up a potential keeper piece if he thinks David Krejci can return to form next season.

Overall Grade: C+ Mady did what he could with what he had, and managed to plug a few draft holes with a 3^rd and 4^th rd pick, but the state of his current keeper roster combined with his inability to land a 1^st or 2^nd round pick has to be a disappointment.

9)Team Jesse: GM Jesse Loader kept many of his peers busy in the weeks leading up to the draft, stoking the rumour mill and trying his best to get the maximum return on his assets. His performance at the waiver draft did not disappoint, managing to pull off an astounding eight trades and revamp over half of his roster. Such an overwhelming number of moves make it difficult to assess this team’s wavier draft in one sitting, but the essential facts are these: GM Loader managed to acquire 3 first round draft picks in 2011, fill some holes by acquiring a 3^rd and a 4^th in 2010, and at the very least maintained the status quo, but likely improved his current roster for the remainder of the 2010 season. Make no mistake, this team will have a hard go of it in 2010-2011, as a number of significant keeper pieces in Claude Giroux, Marian Hossa and Marc Savard were auctioned off. But bringing in Brad Richards, Scott Niedermayer, Mikael Samuellson, Tyler Myers and Jamie Langenbrunner more than offset those losses in the short term. Loader will likely have some thinking to do between now and 2011, but there are enough pieces in place to keep this team out of the cellar along the way.

Best Move: Shipping Marc Savard, Dustin Brown and Erik Johnson for a 1^st in 2011 and a 3^rd and 4^th in 2010. Loader picks up some very solid draft picks for pieces he managed to replace, a very good move among many.

Worst Move: Moving Claude Giroux. While the market for Giroux certainly wasn’t as great as GM Loader tried to create for him, his keeper potential on the right team is good and we wonder if Team Loader was the right team. But Loader certainly managed to get decent got value for him.

Overall Grade A: He managed to fill some 2010 draft holes, stockpile two more 1^st round picks in 2011, and seemingly improved his current roster. This was a victory in all facets by this team.

10) Team Pat: After the wheels fell off over the early winter months, GM Pat Cloutier made the decision to start planning for next year. And with a few keeper holes, and no 2^nd round draft pick due to the Cam Barker debacle, Cloutier appears to have made the right decision. Beyond Henrik Zetterburg and Ryan Getzlaf, this team needed to find a few pieces to the keeper puzzle to get back onto a level playing field. GM Cloutier appears to have done that with the acquisitions of Claude Giroux and Anze Kopitar. Neither player has shown 90-100 production of yet, but there is a bounty of potential in those two names, and Team Pat could hit the jackpot on these two if things go right. Furthermore he managed to turn waiver wire pickup Craig Anderson into a 2^nd round pick, a void he desperately needed to fill. Most impressive though were the waiver moves, as Cloutier picked up dynamic Panthers forward David Booth coming off a severe concussion and young Red Wings net minder Jimmy Howard. This was certainly a return to form for Cloutier after a disastrous November waiver.

Best Move: Craig Anderson for a 2^nd round pick. GM Cloutier filled his draft hole, and then picked up Jimmy Howard off the waiver wire, a solid move. Furthermore Howard provides a keeper alternative to the sophomore slumping Steve Mason in goal.

Worst Move: It was tough to find one, but this writer feels the jury is still out on whether Anze Kopitar can truly be a front end keeper.

Overall Grade: A+ Cloutier managed to fill draft holes, solidify his keeper roster, and pick two versatile waiver pieces that could potentially turn into studs in David Booth and Jimmy Howard. A vast improvement on his previous effort, this wasn’t flashiest, but it may have been the most technically sound waiver work of the year.

11) Team Schuts: Team Schuts sat on the fence a bit at the November Waiver. GM Andrew Schuts rebuilt a tad by picking up a 1^st round pick, but generally employed a wait and see approach toward his team at that point. Well clearly the results and the ensuing sell-off suggest that Schuts did not like what he saw while waiting. A number of complimentary pieces were shipped out for a package of draft picks that will leave this team with a solid slice of the drafting pie, as Schuts has now compiled 6 picks in the first two rounds of September’s draft. Furthermore Schuts managed to secure Team Steve’s 1^st round pick in 2011, a potential lottery pick what with that team’s desperate buying efforts to win this year. However the selling that Schuts did may have gone a tad too far. Pieces such as Ryan Kesler, Stephen Weiss, and Andrei Markov all were likely factoring in as a potential 5^th piece of a Schuts’ keeper roster. As it stands now, Schuts is likely stuck with promising, but still developing rookie James Van Reimsdyk to round out his keeper roster.

Best Move: Shipping out Martin Havlat and Anton Stralman for a 2^nd Round pick in 2010. Neither of these players was going to factor into Schuts’ keeper considerations. As well, considering Havlat was a 10^th round selection and Anton Stralman was a waiver wire pickup; Schuts certainly got strong value here.

Worst Move: Trading both Kesler and Weiss. The picks received in return were solid, but both Weiss’ current contract and Kesler’s projected contract made them valuable options for a 5^th keeper.

Overall Grade: B Schuts clearly has built a solid portfolio of draft picks, but he might not be as solid in his keeper roster as he thinks, as all could potentially flame out due to injuries or performance setbacks in 2010-2011. Moving his plan B keeper options severely handcuffs him going forward if things do not go as planned.

12) Team Will: With many of his assets moved at the November waiver and only one waiver move left on the year, it was expected to be a relatively quiet waiver for this team. Nonetheless, GM Will Keeler managed to move a few more pieces to add to an already strong 2010 draft portfolio. Keeler managed to move Scott Niedermayer and bring in a 5^th round pick, a nice return for the aging veteran. Also Keeler shipped out the pricey Jason Spezza for a 4^th round pick. This move seemed to ruffle a few feathers, as a number of GM’s felt that this was below market value for such a player, but Keeler managed to at least get something of value for an asset that likely had no keeper considerations, which was certainly better than nothing.

Best Move: Acquiring a 5^th rounder for Niedermayer. This was a respectable return for a player making nearly $7 million and only putting up around 30 points on the year.

Worst Move: Not a bad move, as Keeler would have been foolish not to trade Spezza, but he should have managed to get a higher return for such a player.

Overall Grade: B Much of Keeler’s hand had already been played, so it was difficult for this waiver draft to turn into a either a raging success or a blistering failure. But Keeler picked up a few more draft chips, and continues to position himself for next season.