OUCH!
Justin Williams out 4-6 months with an achilles tendon. We wish Williams the best in his recovery. He's a good, if injury prone, player who has always been underrated by your average hockey watcher.
That said, we're not paying ourselves to express our sympathies. Instead we're paid (not) to report and analyze. This hurts Carolina, a lot. They are fairly deep at forward but lack right wings who have chemistry with their top line center Eric Staal. Staal has shown the most chemistry with Williams and Cole, both of whom are now gone (one to hockey hell... and the other to Edmonton). In a division that got much more competitive this offseason this will be a blow.
What does this mean for you fantasy wise? Well I had Williams ranked 12th in my RW rankings, saying "This will surprise some of you but Williams has quietly been very good for the last three years, scoring in the high 60's low 70's. Expect the same this year on a healthy Hurricanes team." Whoops. I'm going to give Dan Wheeler competition for that nickname. Anyway, the good news is you probably haven't drafted yet so... don't draft Justin Williams. 4 to 6 months is most of the season. If you want to pick him up off of waivers and throw him on your IR that's cool, but don't waste a draft pick.
This also now begs the question... who will be playing on Mr. Staal's wing? I'd say I have a couple of dark horses but looking at the remainder of the Canes options ... well lets say they are all dark horses. Pat Eaves would be my pick, but I'm a Boston College homer. the other intirguing possibility is a man who was invited to training camp... former Cane, former Leaf, former NHL caliber player Jeff O'Neill. I'd say that this news has the biggest potential of being "good" for those two men. Keep your eye on the situation, I know I will be.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment