Shallow Frozen Water

young D’s you should know and perhaps don’t

i’ll try not to be TOO obvious here.  obviously if Tobias Enstrom or Eric Johnson is on your wire you need to snap him up, but they won’t be (probably).

Matt Niskanen - with Philippe Boucher on the shelf then more PP time will be allotted to the others on the Dallas blueline alongside Sergei Zubov.  Niskanen has been the beneficiary of some of that PP time but he’s also getting to play alongside Zubov at even strength also, and he’s been showing himself well.  he’s +3 with 7 points in his last 11 games, that’s certainly good enough for the bottom of a roster in medium to deep leagues.

Tom Gilbert - he skates like the wind, he’s getting PP time, he seems to be developing chemistry with Joni Pitkanen, and he’s rarely made a mistake so far this season.  i LIKE this kid.  he’s actually sitting on my waiver wire in my 16 team league and now i’m thinking i need to make that move.   

Dustin Byfuglien - my good friend Sean Allen at ESPN.com wrote in the last week that he doesn’t want Bfugly on his roster and he thinks that he’ll be a flash in the pan.  well, Sean has his right to be wrong.  Bfugly is playing as a forward on the top scoring line for the Hawks but you get to slot him in as a defenseman on your roster, essentially you get F stats out of a D.  that CANNOT be ignored.  Bfugly’s probably snapped up, most likely the day after he scored his hattie about a week and a half ago but for the record i had been watching him and considering him for a pickup for a week or more prior to that.

Cristoph Schubert - he spent some time at forward last year and he’s getting some opportunity for that again.  he shouldn’t be on your waiver wire.

Dennis Wideman - wideload has a 7 game point streak right now and he’s taking in the neighbourhood of 2 shots a game.  those are both very good numbers for a guy who’s always been the sort never to cross the opposing blueline.  he’ll have some value while contributing at this level.

Niklas Kronwall - when i’ve thought of this guy’s development i’ve made the correlation to Vlad the Impaler (Vladimir Konstantinov) because i think Kronwall can contribute along some of the same lines that Vlad did in Detroit.  he won’t be as hardnosed but he could score a lot more.  he was on a 6 game pt streak that got snapped last night but in his last 7 games he’s had 6 pts and was +5, that wouldn’t be bad as a D5 in a deep league.

Mike Green - the Caps have needed PP point men and they went out to get Tom Poti to do that job.  Poti has disappointed (to say the least) but Green has stepped up a little to contribute.  Green has 7 goals, 11 points with 4 pts on the PP.  now that isn’t a huge amount but give him a break, he’s still a kid.  somebody’s got to man the PP and Green looks to be as good an option as any in Washington.

Fedor “it’s nice to have a friend like Hercules” Tyutin - Rozsival has been the Rangers best D and quite often they put a forward on the other point on the PP but Tyutin does get some PP2 duties.  i think 25 pts on the season would be great for him but he’ll give you solid +/- and that may be all you want out of a D6 in a deep league.  besides, i just HAD to make that Toot joke (hey Herc, it’s me!  Toot!).

Alexander Edler - i personally believe the Canucks wanted Luc Bourdon to take the D time presently being given to Edler.  i only mention him because he should be on your radar although i don’t see him contributing significantly to a fantasy team for another 2 years at least.  keepers should know his name but that’s about it.

Brad Stuart - well, i hate his +/- but if someone can roster Rob Blake then they can certainly roster this guy.  they have very similar stat lines and Stu is getting PP2 duty.

Dennis Seidenberg - he was getting some PP time when Jeff Hamilton disappeared from the stat map.  yeah ok, this is looking pretty deep and maybe only the deepest of pools could use him as a D6 or so.

Brendan Witt - one of my fave choices for PIMs out of your D.  he got 8 PIMs in the last week and although he only has 1 fighting major this season he’s perfectly willing to drop the gloves and give anybody some noogies if that’s the route they want to go.  he’ll also keep the +/- at a decent level.

Marc Staal - the NY Daily News indicates that he’ll stay paired up with Rozsival for the upcoming future.  that is a good thing to know because that’ll mean significant ice time.  Marc has the ability to be as good as any of his brothers(in his own way), even Eric.

James Wisniewski - steady production out of plenty of ice time.  i think down the road he’ll take a back seat to some of the stud D presently in the AHL for the Hawks but until that happens he can  be nice roster filler for medium to deep leagues.

Jim Vandermeer - he’s had a PIMy month but there has also been a healthy scratch mixed in there too.