Jonathan Toews has announced on his Instagram account that he won’t play in 2023-24. Toews did not officially retire, which opens the door for a possible return in 2024-25. However, I’d be willing to bet that this is the last we’ve seen of Toews as a player, since he is now 35 years of age and he was held to just 53 games in 2022-23. Once Toews announces his retirement, expect him to be named to the Hockey Hall of Fame shortly after he becomes eligible, as he was the captain of three Stanley Cup winners, won two Olympic gold medals, and was named one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players in 2017.
Hopefully Toews is doing well and is healthy enough to lead a normal life, even if he does not return to professional hockey. As well, perhaps his situation will lead to more awareness about the struggles people have with long COVID as well as research for possible treatments.
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Dobber’s 18th annual Fantasy Guide PDF and Draft List spreadsheet is available! Sleepers, rookies, stock drops, goalies, schedule breakdown, team-by-team projections and analysis, and more! Buy it as a standalone product, or get it as a discount as part of a package.
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The Top 100 Roto Rankings were updated recently for the month of August. Feel free to use these rankings in your upcoming drafts, whether mock or real.
Just as I want to be responsive to player ranking suggestions, I should also be the same way with categories used for the rankings. That is why some changes are coming to the rankings the next time they are updated, which will be on September 15. Currently the categories are G, A, +/-, PPP, SOG, HIT, W, GAA, and SV%, which are subject to endless debate. I have a pretty good idea what the changes will be, but nothing is final until you see it here. Plus, it’s fun to add a little mystery. I will confirm, though, that the rankings will look a little different next month.
When do you pick a goalie? If you follow along with Yahoo pre-draft rankings, the answer is sometime during the second round of 12-team drafts. In my Ramblings from a few weeks ago, I listed arguments for and against what I think are the top 5 goalies being the top-ranked goalie. At this point if I had to pick one goalie, I’d go with Shesterkin.
While I’m at it, this is also a good time to mention that I moved three of the other four goalies (Ilya Sorokin, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Jake Oettinger) up as well. Every year, many of us in the industry say that we won’t pick goalies high in a draft again. But then when push comes to shove, there’s at least one goaltending run. This season, it could happen earlier than you’re comfortable with, and it could involve this cohort.
I know this section is supposed to be about Shesterkin, but you may have also noticed that Linus Ullmark is no longer the #1-ranked goalie. I still have him in my top 5 of goalies, but just barely. The potential timeshare with Jeremy Swayman plus a potential dip in the standings for Boston could cut into his value. Let’s not take away the fact that his Vezina Trophy was well-deserved, and he was more reliable than anyone between the pipes in 2022-23. If too many of your league mates are skeptical about him, don’t hesitate to grab him at the right spot.
I could even see Georgiev being ranked among the top 5 goalies, if you consider his potential for a high win total and decent ratios. In fact, Georgiev tied for the league lead in wins with Ullmark and finished fourth in quality starts in 2022-23. His lack of history as a starting goalie beyond last season might be viewed as a weakness, but at least he was able to prove that he could handle a heavy workload, starting 62 games in 2022-23. As a result, I moved Georgiev up to a spot just outside of the aforementioned top 5 goalies.
One other stat to consider for Georgiev: Really Bad Start Percentage (RBS%). Among goalies that played at least 30 games, only four goalies had a lower RBS% than Georgiev (9.7%). That means over the entire season, he had only six games with a save percentage below .850. That might be aided by the team in front of him, if you consider that his previous numbers were never as good as they were in 2022-23. As long as he’s in the same situation, that doesn’t really matter, though.
I moved Stutzle a way up the rankings earlier this season. Turns out, it wasn’t enough. His 90 points was within the top 20 in that category in just his third NHL season, while his 100+ hits in back-to-back seasons gives him added value in multicategory leagues. Purely my opinion, but I feel like we didn’t hear enough about Stutzle and the kind of season he had. Maybe it’s because he plays in smallish-market Ottawa. I’m sure he would have received a lot more attention if he played in the other Ontario market.
Anyway, Stutzle is only 21 and about to play in his fourth NHL season. I don’t think he has a ton of room to grow with the point total, but it seems like it would very well remain consistent at this point in his career. Perhaps he needs to shoot a little more to be truly elite, as he took just under three shots per game and relied on 17% shooting in 2022-23. Another 90-point season is a distinct possibility, which gives him significant value in bangers leagues if you factor in the hits.
Fox, the Norris Trophy winner in 2020-21, has been a top-10 scorer among defensemen for three consecutive seasons. He would have been a top-5 scorer among defensemen for three consecutive seasons if a bunch of other defensemen didn’t have career years. As well, he was only four points behind the second-highest scoring defensemen in 2022-23. It’s hard to move him down the rankings by a lot, but there are at least a couple of roto categories that are lacking for him.
First, his shot total is by no means terrible, but his career-high 159 SOG in 2022-23 was barely within the top 30 among defensemen. His hit total is more alarming, though. Fox averages just 30 hits per year, which works out to less than one hit every two games. Among the 32 defensemen that played in 82 games (or in rare cases, more), only Cam Fowler had a lower hits total than Fox (25 hits) in 2022-23. Should you draft him, pay attention to the hits totals of other players you are drafting, and look for other defensemen that you can forecast at least 100 hits from.
As I pointed out in my mock draft, I drafted Kopitar at 127th overall. So maybe this is me thinking that I have him ranked too high. Yahoo has him ranked just inside the top 100, and he likely fell further in this mock draft as teams were looking to fill positions beyond center. I think he still has great value, as he has averaged between 0.8 and 0.9 PTS/GP (closer to the 0.9 PTS/GP) over each of the past four seasons. One more fact about Kopitar: He has missed only two games total over his past six seasons. Reliable and durable. You’ll have no problem drafting him without a high pick.
I’ve learned through the years that the frequent visitors of this site LOVE Ehlers, so I might get hit by tomatoes by pushing him down that far. Earlier in the week, Ehlers’ preseason value on Yahoo was in the 400s, which is way lower than it should be and a reflection on the low point total (38 PTS) based on his low games played total (45 GP) due to injury. Power-play time or not, you won’t need a high pick on Ehlers this season, and the updated ranking should take that into account. Ehlers also has a very low hit total – similar to that of Fox listed above.
I think Guentzel was already ranked a bit too high even before the news of his offseason ankle surgery, so this isn’t all about the injury. The team initially said Guentzel will be re-evaluated in 12 weeks, but Kyle Dubas has also stated that Guentzel may miss only five games. For that reason, it can be a bit tricky determining where Guentzel should be drafted. I normally pull injured players from the rankings during the season, especially since their projected returns aren’t always known. As I write this, Guentzel is being drafted at around pick 42 on Yahoo, but I’d let him fall further than that. At least a few rounds from where he’d normally be drafted anyway.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
