|
Previously, we looked at the impact of Anaheim’s free agent acquisition of former Montreal Canadiens’ captain Saku Koivu. In addition to pleasing Ducks’ fans out there in hockeyland, we saw the impact of the dream signing on Finland’s “Keikko Nation”. An entire country’s puck faithful are enthusiastic over the prospect of C Saku Koivu (+7.6 GVT) uniting with fellow “Lion” RW Teemu Selanne (+10.8 GVT), with an eye towards putting forth the most cohesive national team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Saku and Teemu seem destined for plenty of ice time together with the Ducks. As was so eloquently stated: “There can’t be a coach dumb enough in the world that wouldn’t at least try to play them together”.
Yet the $64,000 question remains: Who’s going to play left wing on the line with Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne? As the acquisition of 33 year old Koivu was clearly intended to increase both his production and that of the 39 year old Selanne through their established chemistry, the missing piece of Linemate X may either perfect the line or ruin it.
At the time of the Saku Koivu signing, an intriguing option was another Finnish greybeard, Ville Peltonen, who with Koivu and Jere Lehtinen made up the national team’s so-called Huey, Dewey and Louie line of the 90’s. The line was on the ice for all four goals of Finland’s 4-1 shocking home ice defeat of Sweden in the 1995 IIHF Hockey World Championship finals, with Peltonen registering the hat trick. Yes, 14 years is a long, long time ago, but maybe the boys could have had one last run left in them.
The now 36 year old Peltonen (79 Games, 12 G, 19 A, 21 P, +6 plus/minus, +3.7 GVT for the Panthers in 2008-9) could likely have been acquired for very little, and may have paid dividends by clicking with familiar linemates to the tune of a higher GVT, perhaps even in the range of the +7.7 he posted in 2006-2007. Alas, Peltonen’s NHL career appears to be over. The veteran winger did not resign with Florida, Anaheim or any other NHL club; last week he inked a contract with HC Dynamo Minsk of the KHL, becoming a teammate of NHL journeyman Ossi Vaananen.
Without the wild card of Peltonen available, two options within the current Anaheim roster are former-now-current-Duck Joffrey Lupul (+8.2 GVT)–acquired in the Chris Pronger deal with Philadelphia–or budding young star Bobby Ryan (+12.0 GVT), although the latter would require breaking up the current first line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan. Let’s take a look at the career stats of the two top quality internal choices:
Joffrey Lupul – Career stats, including offensive GVT, defensive GVT, total GVT
Team Season Age GP G A P +/- Val OG Val D Total
ANA 2003-4 20 75 13 21 34 -6 +3.3 +1.5 +4.8
ANA 2005-6 22 81 28 25 53 -13 +5.6 +0.4 +6.0
EDM 2006-7 23 81 16 12 28 -29 -1.6 +0.3 -1.3
PHI 2007-8 24 56 20 26 46 +2 +8.7 +1.7 +10.4
PHI 2008-9 25 79 25 25 50 +1 +7.2 +1.0 +8.2
Total 372 102 109 211 -45 +23.3 +4.8 +28.1
Bobby Ryan – Career stats, including offensive GVT, defensive GVT, total GVT
Team Season Age GP G A P +/- Val OG Val D Total
ANA 2007-8 20 23 5 5 10 -1 +0.3 +0.4 +0.7
ANA 2008-9 21 64 31 26 57 +13 +9.1 +2.9 +12.0
Total 87 36 31 67 +12 +9.4 +3.3 +12.7
Players are more than just numbers, though, and the mix of playing styles needs to work well. To get a little more insight, let’s lean on what they’re saying in Finland about this hot topic, as we did in Part 1:
“Selanne, 0.83 P/GP, and Koivu, 0.77 P/GP, and that’s taking into account that Teemu played with ‘name players’ like Andrew Ebbett. Now, he will have higher caliber linemates, either Ryan, or I guess even Lupul.”
“Play Lupul on the number one line (with Getzlaf and Perry) as he is a soft player, because in addition to Selanne, you can’t put another guy on his line who can’t muck and grind along the boards. I also consider Ryan a better player than Lupul, so in this way, they could even up the firepower on the top two lines.”
“I’m in agreement that Lupul shouldn’t be on the same line as Selanne and Koivu. They need more of a grinder like Ryan rather than the contact-averse Lupul.”
“I’m of the same mind as the others, that Bobby Ryan will turn out to be the second line’s Jere Lehtinen; Lupul doesn’t really fit that bill.”
Posts on keskustelu.jatkoaika.com. Translations by Timo Seppa.
While it’s of course natural for Selanne fans to want to see the younger and more talented Bobby Ryan on the line with their heroes, the point of needing some grit and youth with the wily old Finns is valid. Further, looking at the 2008-2009 postseason, first liners Getzlaf and Perry had a measure of success without Ryan, both posting higher GF/60 and lower GA/60 than their frequent linemate. Since Ryan is the weakest link on the top line, experimenting with the 22 year old on the Koivu-Selanne line would be worth a try, perhaps achieving chemistry that he may be lacking with the Getzlaf-Perry line.
Another message board post brought forth another possible internal candidate, another Finn:
“It would be worth experimenting with Nokelainen on the left wing. In juniors and the SM-Liiga ‘Noksu’ was a decent scorer.” Let’s take a look if that assertion seems to hold:
Petteri Nokelainen – Career stats, including offensive GVT, defensive GVT, total GVT
Team Season Age GP G A P +/- Val OG Val D Total
NYI 2005-6 20 15 1 1 2 -1 -0.2 +0.1 -0.1
BOS 2007-8 22 57 7 3 10 +0 +0.0 +0.8 +0.8
ANA 2008-9 23 50 4 5 9 +2 -0.2 +0.9 +0.7
Total 122 12 9 21 +1 -0.4 +1.9 +1.5
On the surface, the young journeyman’s near-replacement level career GVT’s wouldn’t suggest a trial, but Nokelainen is worth a try, just to see if he can “speak the same language” as Koivu and Selanne, and if he can fit the role of the mucker of the line.
What isn’t suggested by me, or by the posts I’ve seen, is what I consider the failed experiment of teaming Selanne with Andrew Ebbett:
Andrew Ebbett – Career stats, including offensive GVT, defensive GVT, total GVT
Team Season Age GP G A P +/- Val OG Val D Total
ANA 2007-8 25 3 0 0 0 +3 -0.4 +0.4 -0.1
ANA 2008-9 26 48 8 24 32 +8 +3.7 +1.8 +5.5
Total 51 8 24 32 +11 +3.3 +2.2 +5.5
While the University of Michigan product scored 32 Points and posted a decent +5.5 GVT, remember that Ebbett has played a mere 51 games in his NHL career by age 26. One might surmise that playing with a future Hall Of Famer may have inflated his stats to the adequate levels of last season. Conversely, playing with a career minor leaguer may have dragged down that future Hall Of Famer’s production. The line was a disaster in the playoffs.
An ideal scenario for the wingman of Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne? Alex Tanguay, Koivu’s linemate in Montreal last season, is still available. Tanguay (50 Games 16 Goals 25 Assists 41 Points +13 plus/minus, +9.3 GVT) is underrated for a star player, though signing what is the best remaining free agent would first require finding a taker for Jean-Sebastien Giguere and his $6 million salary to free up the requisite cap space.
Timo Seppa is an author of Hockey Prospectus.
You can contact Timo by clicking here or click here to see Timo's other articles.
|
0 comments have been left for this article. 
Conn Smythe Watch: Lundqvist Leads