On the ‘D’-Fence: Rookie Rearguards Who Rank at LinesMaker

On the ‘D’-Fence: Rookie Rearguards Who Rank

The 2012 NHL All-Star Game is in the books and as always it was an excit­ing event that show­cased the skills of some of the best and bright­est the league has to offer. Though there were 42 vets selected to par­tic­i­pate in the game itself, the League’s selec­tion com­mit­tee also chose 12 rook­ies to take part in the weekend’s activities.

That is what we are going to do here today.

Con­sid­er­ing that we had a short week in the fan­tasy realm due in large part to those All-Star fes­tiv­i­ties, we fig­ured that we would point out a hand­ful of rook­ies that are start­ing to slide into big­ger roles for their teams. These play­ers may not be a ben­e­fit to all of you, but they could offer some nice depth scor­ing and should def­i­nitely be on the radars of those in keeper or dynasty leagues.

We’ll start with one defense­man who was actu­ally cho­sen to take part in the All-Star events in Ottawa, Raphael Diaz. Diaz might not be as con­sis­tent on the offen­sive side of the puck at this stage of his career, but he has shown the abil­ity to play big min­utes and on both spe­cial teams in a top four role with the Cana­di­ens this sea­son. He did strug­gle through a recent eight-game score­less drought that earned him a seat in the press box as a healthy scratch, but he has picked up points in con­sec­u­tive game since return­ing to the lineup. Diaz now has 15-points (3G-12A), 47 shots on goal and a man­age­able minus-1 on the season.

The Nashville Preda­tors boast a cou­ple of pretty impres­sive defense­men in Shea Weber and Ryan Suter, but they have accu­mu­lated some nice depth behind their studs, which brings us to Ryan Ellis. We have men­tioned him before in this space, but it is nec­es­sary to men­tion him again. Ellis, the Preda­tors’ 11th over­all pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, has qui­etly put up 7-points (2G-5A) dur­ing a 14 game call up. The most intrigu­ing thing about his time in the League is the Preds have gone 12–2-0 with him in the lineup. He did see his min­utes fall to just 9:49 in his final game before the break, but has still man­aged 2 assists in his last three games. There is no telling how much longer Barry Trotz will opt to keep him in the lineup, but he is a threat to score each night when he is playing.

Before Jof­frey Lupul exploded with one of the best come­back sea­sons in NHL his­tory, Jake Gar­diner was the focal point of the trade the sent Fran­cois Beau­chemin from the Leafs to the Ducks. Gar­diner has recently started to show why he was so attrac­tive to Toronto Gen­eral Man­ager Brian Burke, as he has picked up 5 points (1G-4A) over his last seven games. He has played in 41 games for the Leafs this sea­son and logs big min­utes for the squad, skat­ing an aver­age of 20:53 per night. If there is a flaw, it is that he doesn’t shoot the puck enough, but that will likely improve as he gets more com­fort­able in the League.

Though the Avalanche haven’t had a great sea­son to this point — although they are still in the play­off hunt — they have a cou­ple of rea­sons to smile and one of them is Ste­fan Elliott. The young rear­guard has played in 29 con­sec­u­tive games since being recalled by the Avs and has posted 11-points (4G-7A) over that stretch. To say that he has been streaky would be an under­state­ment as he has four 2-game scor­ing streaks and one 3-game streak on the sea­son, but there is one cat­e­gory in which he pro­duces on a nightly basis: shots on goal. The young­ster has launched 68 pucks on net and is aver­ag­ing 2.3 shots per game. There is a chance that his play­ing time will get a bit spo­radic over the remain­der of the sea­son, but he is still worth a look in deeper leagues.

A few other rookie rear­guards to keep an eye on mov­ing for­ward are Jared Cowen of the Ottawa Sen­a­tors, who has notched 14 points (4G-10A) on the year, Slava Voynov of the Kings who recently returned from injury and has posted 11 points (4G-7A) in 31 games and the Cap­i­tals Dmitry Orlov, who has notched 8 points (1G-7A) in 30 games this season.

TRENDING UPWARD

Niklas Kro­n­wall — Kro­n­wall has long been a favorite here and was listed amongst our sleeper picks for this sea­son. It took a while, but he is finally reward­ing our faith and is sit­ting in sec­ond place in defense­men goal scor­ing with 11 on the sea­son. He is rid­ing a three-game scor­ing streak and now has 23 points (11G-12A) on the year. He could eas­ily fin­ish this sea­son with 40-plus points.

Ryan Whit­ney — We have a soft spot for Ryan Whit­ney. He is a great human, who inter­acts with his fans on twit­ter, cuts a mean joke and when healthy can score points by the bushel. The tal­ented rear­guard has been plagued by ankle prob­lems this year and may not ever be able to get back to 100 per­cent, but he is again try­ing a come­back. He played in the Oil­ers’ final game before the break and didn’t score, but played over 18 min­utes. Here’s hop­ing he can stay on the ice this time.

Sami Salo — Speak­ing of guys who returned just prior to the break, Salo hit the ice with his mates and skated over 23 min­utes. He was a reg­u­lar con­trib­u­tor to the Canucks before being knocked out of the lineup due to injury on Jan. 7 and has value in deeper fan­tasy formats.

TRENDING DOWNWARD

P.K. Sub­ban — Sub­ban has more tal­ent than many of his peers, but he has to learn to use it a bit more effi­ciently. He was recently benched by interim head coach Randy Cun­ney­worth for an undis­ci­plined play against the Red Wings’ Dan Cleary, which fol­lowed a recent fine for a dan­ger­ous trip on the Pen­guins’ Chris Kunitz. Stir in the fact that he has just 3 points in his last 12 games and it is get­ting harder to keep him in start­ing lineups.

Adam Lars­son — Lars­son has been amongst the best rook­ies on the blue line this sea­son, but he finds him­self here because he has been mak­ing a steady fall down our rank­ings. Sure he could help in deeper leagues, but he isn’t a huge fan­tasy dif­fer­ence maker right now with just 2 points in his last four­teen games.

Marc Staal — Staal has been listed here for two weeks in a row. Sure that may be extreme, but he has yet to reg­is­ter a point since return­ing to action in the Win­ter Clas­sic. That is hard to do, espe­cially with the Rangers play­ing so well. He has also reg­is­tered a minus-4 over that span. It is wise to look else­where until he begins to start look­ing more like his old self.

KEEP AN EYE ON…

Kevin Klein — Klein has never scored more than 18 points in a sea­son, but he has been find­ing his way on to the score­sheet more fre­quently as of late. The six-year pro has picked up 6 points (2G-4A) over his last 12 games; he has launched 19 shots over that span and has reg­is­tered a plus-5. He could help in deeper for­mats. Keep an eye on him mov­ing forward.

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