Here's what he had to say about the defense:
When looking at defenseman, you want them to be the QB of on of the top Power Plays in the nation. This allows them to score the occasional PP goal and rack up assists. What I looked for in compiling this list what players who if they didn't put up significant points at the least displayed significant offensive tendencies and should be poised to step up and take a more prominent offensive role with their team this year. On the whole a very young group, but with a ton of talent what wasn't as depleated with early departures as the forward class was. Last year the top scoring defenseman in fantasy points was the Hobey Baker winner Matt Carle (early second round pick) with 69 pts putting him at 64th overall in scoring. The only other defenseman to break the top 100 in scoring was Jamie Hunt (undrafted last year) who was 94th overall with 63 fantasy points.
1. Alex Goligoski –UMN
2. Tyler Howells –MSU
3. Matt Hunwick –UMI
4. Jack Johnson –UMI
5. Reid Cashman -Quinnipiac
6. Brian Lee –UND
7. Brett Motherwell –BC
8. Chris Butler –DU
9. Cody Wild –PC
10. Erik Johnson –UMN
11. Justin Fletcher –SCSU
12. Mitch Ganzak –Miami
13. Kyle Klubertanz –UW
14. Aaron Brocklehurst –SCSU
15. Sean Collins –OSU
16. Matt Sorteburg –Quinnipac
17. Wes O’Neill –ND
18. Brian Gineo –AFA
19. Bret Tyler –Maine
20. Jon Landry- HOLY CROSS
21. Mike Salekin –UAH
22. Mike Vannelli –UMN
23. Tim Manthey –Army
24. Lee Sweatt –CC
25. Taylor Chorney -UND
26. Michael Grenzy –Clarkson
27. Sean Sullivan –BU
28. Kevin Schaeffer –BU
29. Sean Erickson –Uconn
30. Adam Bartholomay –UNO
31. Scott Marchesi –Sacred Heart
32. Drew Bagnall –SLU
33. Cleve Kinley –UML
34. Grant Lewis –Dartmouth
35. Kalen Wright –Sacred Heart
WCH's Take:
Again, a very solid list. The temptation will be to take super freshmen Erik Johnson early on, but Almington is probably right to put him in about 10. The real sleeper on this list is Justin Fletcher at number 11. Fletcher is a great offensive defenseman and could have a huge year. I'll probably have him in the top 5 on my list. Chris Butler is another nice sleeper pick that I really like.
2 comments:
this is rediculous... taking erik johnson 10th? are you kidding and also brian lee should have gone higher too.
If you had spelled 'ridiculous' correctly I might be willing to take your criticism a bit more seriously. These are from my notes on both Johnson and Lee:
Brian Lee received significant PP time on UND last year, and put up solid, but not spectacular, numbers. The 5 players above him all put up better numbers then him last year and are returning to talented and proven offenses. I project Lee to put up about 35 points and double his goal production. If he does this he should have about 55 fantasy points on the year, which puts him in the upper levels of defenseman production.
Erick Johnson is an unknown, where he was drafted in the NHL draft has no bearing on how he does in his freshman year. I projected that Johnson will have about a 25 point season at MN, that will translate to about a low 40's point fantasy season. It's very possible that he'll exceed this level of production, but I'd rather have reasonable expectations and have them met, then have unreasonable ones that are nearly impossible for to reach.
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