Waiver Draft 1 Report Card

Post date: Jan 18, 2010 1:54:5 AM

By: Andrew Schuts

The November Waiver period has come and gone and the respective general managers have made their moves in an effort to solidify their standing in the future, the present, or in some cases, a mixture of the two. While it will not be crystal clear who the true winners and losers of this waiver period are until well into the New Year, it is still always fun to assess the results and determine just who came out on top without the assistance of any hindsight.

Team Hallman: Never let it be said the GM Steve Hallman is not committed to icing the best product he can. Hallman wasted little time making a splash at this year’s waiver, and what a splash it was. Hallman found a way to get his hands on two of the top five waiver picks, and fill in some key holes. On the whole Team Hallman did a major overhaul, replacing close to half of the players on his team, while sacrificing some of next year to do it.

Best Move: Acquiring Max Afinogenov off waivers. Getting a slice of the offensively stacked Atlanta Thrashers pie was a great move.

Worst Move: Trading Jonathan Toews. This move was somewhat of a head scratcher. One could surmise this was cap related in every way, and one would probably be right. But trading one of the best young talents in the game is a move that could come back to haunt Hallman potentially this year, but most certainly in the future.

Grade: C+ Team Hallman may have been a bit too active, and may perhaps have overvalued the quality of his team. But one has to be impressed with the flashy commitment to success.

Team Dave: The benefit of good fortune? The foolishness of 10 GM’s drafting ahead of him? Or drafting the best point producing forward on waivers who is bound to come down to earth? The waiver pickup of Dustin Penner could well define Team Dave as it moves forward. Many of the same GM’s who passed on Penner were lamenting the fact that the 2^nd place team in the pool managed to pick him up. Nobody is mistaking Penner for a 100 point producer. But top six minutes are gold. If Penner is the real deal, then Team Dave has made a real steal.

Best Move: Improving his team without surrendering draft picks. Team Dave was quiet this waiver, but still seemed to come out on top.

Worst Move: Not making the big splash. With teams all around him making big moves, Team Dave opted to stay the course and not sacrifice the future. This may turn out to be genius, but if Team Dave’s production falls, it could turn out to burn him.

Grade: B Tough to find any holes in this quiet yet confident waiver performance.

Team Neutron: This was a waiver draft that saw some rookie mistakes and some confusion with the Novarks brass, before ending on a strong note with the acquisition of underachieving defenseman Dion Phaneuf. GM Neutron stabilized his team and may have come out with one of the more impressive waiver drafts of the day. There are still a few holes on this team, and one can never be sure if this, or any time, truly is the dawning of the age of (Kristian) Huselius, but Team Neutron may have made enough moves to stay in the running for the time being.

Best Move: The late night trade of Vanek for Phaneuf. This was a solid pure hockey trade, but one has to believe that there is a bit more upside to Team Neutron on this one. Furthermore it filled a key team need.

Worst Move: Picking up Dennis Seidenberg.

Grade: A Digging himself out of cap hell after the mix-up with Novarks Head Office, followed by poaching Dion Phaneuf makes this one of the best drafts of the day.

Team Nate: Well known for keeping his cards very close to his chest, GM Nate seemed to follow the instructions of some of the Novarks beat writers out there and parlay his glut of solid goaltending. This move was solid in that it allows Pekka Rinne to get off the bench and into the line-up, and secondly it allowed Team Nate to snag a 5^th round draft selection 2010. Team Nate went with a big youth movement in this draft picking up Del Zotto, Bergfors, and Benn. Ultimately this could be the deciding factor going forward. Can these young talents step in and perform as adequately in the last two thirds of the season as they have so far? Time will tell.

Best Move: Michael Del Zotto. Plain and simple, this kid is the model puck moving defenseman. If Del Zotto puts up 60+points, he has keeper potential with two years remaining on the rookie contract.

Worst Move: Niclas Bergfors. It might be a bit soon for young Bergfors to maintain his production for a whole year.

Grade: B+ Team Nate made his team better, and managed to gain draft picks instead of lose them. Oh and he continues to climb in the standings. Impressed?

Team Pat: While I admit I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of Team Pat heading into the waiver, GM Cloutier’s performance at the waiver may have caused this team a chance at the championship. A pile of good fortune in drawing the 1^st pick in the draft was wasted with a decidedly sideways move dropping Chris Mason later in the draft after picking up Craig Anderson. There are just not enough shrewd moves here to keep this team afloat, and one has to think that if Team Pat was in the driver’s seat heading into the waiver with that lotto steal, it must have lost control of the wheel somewhere along the way.

Best Move: Picking up Cam Barker. Barker didn’t come cheap, but he will provide solid points from the back end.

Worst Move: Craig Anderson. This was a sideways move. Team Pat missed a chance to really improve with that 1^st waiver pick.

Grade: D GM Cloutier was wheeling and dealing all week, but ultimately couldn’t put the pieces together to improve a strong team and make it great.

Team Greg: Misfortune strikes without discretion, and Team Greg was the victim of misfortune at this draft. Losing David Jones for the season to knee surgery minutes after acquiring him on waivers is the ultimate misfortune at a waiver draft. However the acquisitions of Bang Bang Robert Lang and Lubomir Visnovsky are strong pickups. GM Mady continues to make impressive moves and mature as a Novarks GM. However he may have got caught chasing his tail a bit benching Tim Thomas for Tukka Rask. But alas many GM’s have been victims of the platoon merry-go-round over the years.

Best Move: Lubomir Visnovsky. If you can afford a $7 million dollar defenseman, Visnovsky is great to have.

Worst Move: Benching Tim Thomas. It is almost always of greater benefit to a GM to wash his hands of a goalie crisis, rather than try and predict its outcome.

Grade: C+ The injury to Jones coupled with the benching of Thomas makes it hard to call this draft a success. But the little damage that has been done here is correctable. Hopefully for Team Greg’s sake, it won’t be too late.

Team Jesse: It is not often a 7^th place team in late November feels that this is their year. But Team Jesse feels they are contenders and made a huge splash in acquiring Ilya Kovalchuk at the expense of a large chunk of next years draft. Team Jesse wasn’t done there, trading more picks to free up cap space and land the currently injured Ryan Smyth. These moves are eye openers to say the least, and it would be difficult to argue that this team is not much improved from where it was a few short days ago. However this is an awfully large price to pay with 6 teams to pass in 5 months, and a few looking right over your shoulder. If this season falls apart, it will be very difficult to compete next year.

Best Move: Picking up Kovalchuk. The price was very high, but the payoff this year could be just sweet enough to make up for it

Worst Move: Jason Demers. This fellow was optioned to the minors not long after Team Jesse traded for him. However, if Team Jesse is as good as GM Loader thinks it is it will be able to handle missing a depth defenseman for a few months.

Grade: B It would be inappropriate to grade this draft a huge success without the advantage of hindsight. But one has to be impressed by the commitment to winning.

Team Daly: Team Daly clearly thinks it can compete this year, as there was no selling going on, and the players acquired would certainly help any team going forward. Dumping wasted cap space Tom Gilbert for rising young defensive stud Tyler Myers is a solid move. And picking up Crosby/Malkin line mate Bill Guerin will most certainly pay dividends. But one has to think that the Phaneuf/Vanek trade was the defining moment of this waiver draft for GM Daly. I have already stated I think this was a great pure hockey trade, but GM Daly needs the sniping Slovak to get hot if this trade is going to help push him over the top. I’m just not sure Vanek is capable of doing that.

Best Move: Rob Blake. A quiet pickup of the aging star, Blake has the potential to put up big points on the best team in the NHL.

Worst Move: Trading Phaneuf for Vanek. Not the worst move of the waiver draft by any means, but selling low on a talent like Phaneuf can backfire.

Grade: B+ The waiver moves overshadow the Phaneuf trade and make this team stronger. GM Daly comes through with another solid, well prepared draft.

Team Jacques: GM Chris Jacques was busy throughout the evening, kicking some tires, and at times was furiously working the floor in an effort to land a better goaltending option. In the end he was forced to live with waiver option Tomas Vokoun, and this is a move that could pay solid dividends. The Panthers have been much improved of late, and Vokoun seems to have settled in as the number one. Jacques’ acquisition of Nik Antropov, at the expense of Shawn Horcoff no-less, along with the waiver pickup Wojtek Wolski improves an already strong core of forwards. However the lack of production from the defence on this team coupled with the inability to really improve that area will likely leave this team floundering in the middle of the pack for the time being.

Best Move: Nik Antropov. Big Nik will provide some solid production, and getting rid of Shawn Horcoff’s presence will likely improve this team.

Worst Move: Wojtek Wolski. Wolski has been well known for disappearing for weeks on end, and it would be very surprising if he could maintain his current pace and provide Team Jacques with some gains.

Grade: B Not a poor draft, but not enough to improve this team out of the middle of the pack. What saves this draft for Jacques is having the 3^rd waiver priority at the end of the day.

Team Will: One of the most active teams at the Waiver Draft, Team Will effectively announced that a rebuild had begun. And this team certainly did a pleasant job of stockpiling top round draft picks in 2010, and acquiring an almost guaranteed keeper in Jonathan Toews. What will ultimately determine the success of this waiver, and the overall change in direction towards the rebuild gameplan is just how the stockpiling will play out in the 2010-2011 season. It remains to be seen if stockpiling high picks can be an effective strategy heading into the next season. Logically it makes sense. But just how valuable those picks will be is really difficult to determine without a clear sense of who keeps which players, and what the overall pool of talent will be. This is the first experiment in rebuilding in the keeper era of the Novarks League, and I for one am on the edge of my seat wondering how it will play out.

Best Move: Acquiring Andy Macdonald and a 4^th rd pick for Jason Demers. This was an unintended stroke of genius by GM Will Keeler, parlaying the soon to be demoted Demers for a solid pick, and a solid forward, and only giving up a 7^th.

Worst Move: Dropping Kyle Turris. When committing to a rebuild, it is somewhat of a headscratcher that a potential asset in the future such as Turris was dropped. Perhaps he didn’t fit into Keeler’s keeper plans, but one has to assume this team could have been patient with the young Turris.

Grade: B+ Keeler committed to a gameplan, and made things happen, accepting a healthy dose of reality, something the next two teams perhaps should have also done.

Team Schuts: The doom and gloom being spread from the Team Schuts marketing department about an inevitable rebuild didn’t quite materialize as expected. Having the best week leading up to the Waiver clearly made this GM stop and reconsider. All in all this was a Waiver draft that saw GM Schuts sit on the fence regarding the future of his team, and such indecision can be disastrous at times. A little building for the future and some shoring up of existing holes may lead this team to the middle of the pack, but no further. The key here was shoring up an atrocious defence that had accumulated a mere 28 points amongst 6 players at the time of the Waiver.

Best Move: Trading the 3^rd overall waiver for a 1^st round pick in 2010, along with which, GM Schuts acquired solid young up and comer Josh Bailey.

Worst Move: Failing to develop a clear cut strategy of rebuild or commit to winning. The wait and see approach lacks decisiveness. Although GM Schuts has been on record in the media as saying his worst move was failing to acquire Wayne Simmonds or Sean Avery.

Grade: C+ A lack of decisiveness overall prevents this draft from being a success. But there are enough solid moves with an eye to the future to give this team a satisfactory grade.

Team Josh: It is not clear whether Team Josh truly believes this roster has a chance to compete, was blinded by lofty side bets, or if it simply couldn’t pull the trigger on some key deals. The rumour mills were flying that GM MacNaughton was working the phones, but no deals materialized. At the end of the day, MacNaughton does hold a potentially valuable asset with the number two overall waiver selection. Retaining that priority will payoff should he decide to rebuild, or miraculously his team re-enters the competitive field over the next few months.

Best Move: Ryan Malone. Malone, despite his price, is a solid pickup who is on pace to pot 30-40 goals this season. This was a solid use of the 2^nd overall selection.

Worst Move: The moves that weren’t made. In particular MacNaughton was unable to move Cam Ward, who was one of the most valuable trade assets in the league. This could come back to haunt this team if it remains in the cellar, and MacNaughton is unable to move him at the next waiver draft.

Grade: C MacNaughton really needs this team to pick up its socks. Hope still exists to commit to a rebuild at the February waiver should this team remain in last.