Posted by Tristan H. Cockcroft
I'm not going to call
Evgeni Malkin a buy-low candidate. It's tough to classify any player as that when he has eight points through eight games, a cozy 82-point pace for a full season, and is only six months removed from a stunning, 33-goal, 85-point rookie campaign.
Still, I will call Malkin a buy-now candidate, on the notion that this might represent the one time you'll be able to buy in at a reasonable rate. Oh, you'll have to pay a pretty penny to get him, but a guy with his talent, on a young, burgeoning offense finally starting to find its wheels, that's someone I'd like to have on my team.
On Tuesday, all Malkin did was net the game's only goal, a power-play tally early in the second period, beating a talented goalie in the Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist. That might seem like nothing to you, but it helped the Penguins to their third consecutive victory, the past two within the division, reversing what had been a somewhat ugly first two weeks.
A lot can be said for momentum in the game of hockey, and one thing's for sure: No one is going to want to trade a guy like Malkin once he kicks his full-season pace back over the century mark, so if you're after him, now's as good a time as any. Frankly, I'd be a bit shocked if he didn't finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-45 goals, 100 points.
Speaking of those Penguins, many props to Marc-Andre Fleury, who led the team to those back-to-back intradivision victories, capped by a 36-save shutout of the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. Fleury kicked off his season by allowing a dreadful 18 goals in five games, but if this is the point where the Penguins turn their season around -- and it sure seems like it is -- then he's going to be quite a nice back-end No. 1/elite No. 2 for fantasy teams. ...
By the way, could anyone in hockey right now have more wretched luck than Lundqvist? Let's toss aside his one poor performance, a five-goal meltdown in a 5-3 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers this past Thursday. But outside of that, Lundqvist has allowed no more than three goals in a game all season. In fact, in six of his games he has allowed two goals or fewer, but won only two of them, capped by back-to-back 1-0 losses. Aren't the Rangers generally better known for their late-season slumps? Like in baseball, I'm still of the mind wins are wholly unpredictable, and I can't argue with Lundqvist's performance so far. This team has to get things straightened out on offense sooner or later. ...
Rookie Patrick Kane picked up his first career multi-goal game on Tuesday, and added two assists, bringing his season totals to three goals, 13 points in nine games. That's an exceptional start for an 18-year-old kid -- he'll turn 19 on Nov. 19 -- not that anyone denied his raw talent, his having been selected first overall in the June NHL Draft. To manage that kind of start on a Blackhawks team that still finds itself ranked 16th in scoring (2.78 goals per game) after finishing 2006-07 29th (2.38), well, that's rather remarkable. Putting keeper leagues aside for a moment, the only concerns I have with Kane in the long term this season is his wearing down during the course of a long, six-month season. To me he's not quite the immediate impact force a Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin might have been as a rookie, so be prepared for a point where his play might slow enough that it's a worthwhile time to begin shopping him. Of course, I'm thinking maybe that's around January, so no need for a panic button, not yet. ...
Brad Boyes, now there's a name I remember. It was only two short years ago when I picked this kid up in an important league of mine, right around the beginning of January, only to see him rattle off an astonishing 17 goals and 46 points in 44 games to conclude that campaign. Unfortunately, things didn't go nearly as smoothly for him as a sophomore last season, and he was shipped off to St. Louis in exchange for defensive help, in the person of Dennis Wideman. It wasn't too bright a trade, and since then, Boyes polished off the 2006-07 campaign with four goals and 12 points in 19 games, and now, after his two-goal performance on Tuesday, he's up to six goals -- three on the power play -- in seven games this season. It sure helps Boyes' cause that he has such names as Paul Kariya, Keith Tkachuk and Doug Weight skating alongside him, and he's getting a great deal of power-play time, meaning his early-season pace shouldn't be considered that outrageous. In fact, he might be as much an impact player as he was in 2005-06, the year I nabbed him. ...
Did I really say Chris Mason was a sleeper/breakout candidate for this season? No, really, did I? (OK, I did.) Boy, has he been dreadful in six consecutive defeats; he has a 5.12 goals-against average and .820 save percentage during that span. The good news: With only the inexperienced Dan Ellis threatening his job security, Mason should get every chance to turn things around. I'm willing to be patient, though only with him on my bench. ...
Rick Nash is off to quite the hot start, netting two goals and an assist on Tuesday to bring his season totals to seven goals and 12 points in eight games. There's no denying this kid's talent; he has a booming slap shot that's tough to defend. Still, and it's always been this way, health remains the question with Nash. Only once in his career has he played in more than 75 games (80, in 2003-04), so there's always a risk with him.
Tristan H. Cockcroft covers fantasy sports for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him here.
