All of a sudden, losing Sergei Gonchar doesn’t seem so bad.
The Penguins, after parting ways with Sergei Gonchar and possibly Jordan Leopold and Jay McKee, the Pens made a splash landing one of the biggest free agent defensemen in Zbynek Michalek at $4-million a year over 5 years. Michalek has come close to the 30-point mark before but time on the Pens’ powerplay and the amount of minutes he will likely eat up instantly increase his fantasy value to a second or third defenseman on your fantasy team.
Of possibly more fantasy significance, the Pens also added former Devils defenseman Paul Martin for $5-million a year for 5 years. Martin was hampered with injuries in 2009-10 but is a consistent 30-point scorer (in the Devils system) and will help replace some of the playmaking ability that Gonchar takes with him.
We’ll need to see where the Pens line up Michalek and Martin in their existing group of Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski – especially on the powerplay – but their fantasy upside is clear.
