Fantasy Hockey Post Mortem

June 12, 2008 1:00pm CDT

Montreal Canadiens (47-25-10), 1st place

FORWARDS

A confluence of favorable circumstances conspired to propel the Montreal Canadiens, a team some pundits chose in October to miss the playoffs, to the top of the Eastern Conference standings during the regular season.

The primary of which was the resurgence of uber-talented, if enigmatic, Russian star Alexei Kovalev. Just a year after scoring a relatively disappointing 18 goals and 47 points and nearly being run out of town by the press, Kovalev rebounded with a 35-goal, 84-point effort this season. That point total represents his best in eight seasons and his 17 PP goals was the most he's ever produced. In addition to leading his team in points by a fair margin, Kovalev actually led the entire league in terms of power-play production, managing a mind-boggling 47 points with the man-advantage (one ahead of second place Sergei Gonchar and six ahead of guys like Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk).

With the Kovalev renaissance came the emergence of some of Montreal's talented young players. Tomas Plekanec, in his fourth season in the league, took a big step forward, managing 29 goals and 69 points. The young center has now scored 20+ goals in consecutive years and looks to be a primary cog in the Canadiens offensive machine going forward. Andrei Kostitsyn also seemed to blossom under the tutelage of Kovalev, expanding his previous season point total of 11 to 53 this year, including 26 goals. His younger brother, Sergei Kostitsyn, was called up halfway through the year and gathered 27 points in 52 games played in a somewhat reduced role. Expect him to make the team full time next season, however.

Another youngster that made progress was Christopher Higgins. The former first rounder pierced the 20-goal mark for the third straight season and bumped his career high for points from 38 to 52. Higgins played a multitude of roles for his club this year, ranging from scoring to checking duties, speaking to his high hockey IQ and utility as a player. He was also one of the few Habs whose increase in points wasn't predicated upon a ridiculously high shooting percentage (11.2%), which means he's more likely to sustain or build upon his gains next year. In contrast, Plekanec (15.6%), Andrei Kostitsyn (16.7%) and even Kovalev (15.2%) seemed to enjoy an abundance of favorable bounces and are probably looking at (at least) marginal steps backwards next year as far as goal scoring is concerned.

The lone disappointment for Montreal was former 30-goal man Michael Ryder. Thanks to his lackluster defensive play, his mediocre skating ability and the rapid development of the players mentioned above, Ryder found himself on the outside looking in on many a night. He lost his place on the Habs league leading power-play unit(s) to the up-and-comers and was relegated to a third/fourth line role for a majority of the season. As a result, Ryder had the worst year of his professional career, scoring just 14 goals and 31 points. To put that in perspective, he scored more goals on the power-play during the previous two seasons (17 and 18 respectively) than he managed in total this year. Ouch.

Ryder is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this year and, after that sort of performance, it's a good bet he won't be donning the "bleu, blanc en rouge" again any time soon.

DEFENSEMEN

Andrei Markov signed a lucrative, long-term contract with the Canadiens last summer and he did his best to justify that deal. He led Montreal's blueline in a number of categories, including ice-time (24:58 per game) and goals (16). He also set a number of career highs, including goals, power-play goals (10) and points (58). Markov has scored 40 or more points in each of his last three seasons and has grown into the Habs premier blueliner. Expect him continue to put up the numbers going forward.

Like so many other Canadiens players, power-play specialist Mark Streit also experienced a big jump in his stats this season. Owing partially to the fact that he was sometimes deployed as a forward, Streit finished with 13 goals and 62 points, good for third overall on the team and nearly a full 30 points above his previous career best of 36. Although he can be a defensive liability sometimes, Streit has a cannon of a shot and is capable of quarter-backing a power-play. Like Ryder, Streit is scheduled to become a free agent come July and it remains a question whether management will be willing to dole out the sizable raise he'll be seeking above his prior salary of $600,000/year. If not, Streit is bound to generate significant interest on the open market.

GOALIES

Montreal was blessed with an embarrassment of riches in net this season. The often over-looked Cristobal Huet provided the club with steady, reliable goaltending before being dealt at the deadline to Washington. In 39 games, he managed 19 wins with a 2.55 GAA and top-notch 0.916 SV%.

Of course, Huet was made expendable by the emergence of (yet another) young prospect, Carey Price. At just 20 years old, Price won 24 of his 41 games, while putting up a respectable goals against average (2.56) and elite save percentage (0.920). While some cracks formed in the kids veneer during the playoffs, his results from the regular season suggest he has a bright future ahead of him. Expect him to be the Canadiens go-to man for the foreseeable future.

FANTASY MVP: Alexei Kovalev

FANTASY BUST: Michael Ryder