Players Impacting Their Draft Status During Preseason Play
Comrie has posted six assists in two pre-season games back in Edmonton, including a four point performance against the Panthers during which chants of “Comrie! Comrie!” cascaded down from the Rexall Place rafters instead of the boos he is normally used to. Two of the three best seasons of his career occurred in Edmonton, so don’t count him out. I wouldn’t draft him unless you are in an extremely deep league but he is worth keeping an eye on. He is known for hot starts so you might be able to ride him for the first couple weeks of the season.
Justin Abdelkader – LW, Detroit
Abdelkader has three points in as many preseason games for the Red Wings, and is getting considerable love in Yahoo drafts. He is on average the 136th player selected, ahead of fellow left wingers like Brendan Morrow, Paul Kariya, Slava Kozlov, James Neal and Steve Sullivan. He will not be starting the year in the Red Wings top nine forwards so don’t waste a pick on him.
Tomas Kaberle – D, Toronto
Kaberle has posted four assists in two games for what should be a much improved Leafs team. After an injury derailed his season last year, he is being seriously undervalued during drafts this year. He could be among the top 15 defenceman in scoring this year, so don’t be afraid to call out his name (or click it) on draft day.
Brad Richards – C, Dallas
Richards has three points in two games, and seems to be fully recovered from last year’s broken wrist. He has only been selected in 15% of Yahoo drafts thus far so do yourself a favour and pick him up near the end of your draft.
Olli Jokinen – C, Calgary
Jokinen looked good in his debut last night, recording a goal, two assists and four penalty minutes while playing with Iginla. He lost a bit of fantasy love after a mediocre performance in Calgary last year (-7 in 19 games), but if he can stick with Iginla the whole year you should be looking at 80 points. He should be on your list of players to watch out for on draft day.