Top 10 Disappointing 2016-17 Seasons

Tom Collins

2017-04-17

Top 10 disappointing campaigns…

 

You’d be hardpressed to find a fantasy general manager who didn’t own a player that had a disappointing season. Even those who won a championship may have owned a player or two that underperformed. But the smart GM sees the silver lining as many of the players on this list could be the perfect buy-low candidates.

Below you’ll find 10 players that disappointed. Players who missed most of the season because of injuries are excluded. I’m also combining teammates for reasons that will become apparent very quickly.

 

10. Jesse Puljujarvi

It’s easy to forget now how hyped Puljujarvi was before the season began. Most thought he was playing a full season and was a shoo-in for the Calder trophy as he would be a top-six forward right out of the gate. But Puljujarvi struggled with just eight points in 27 games before finally being sent to the AHL. He may be a good buy-low candidate but his rookie season was pretty disappointing.

 

9. Jaroslav Halak

He started off with so much promise after an excellent World Cup of Hockey. Then he struggled on an Islanders team and was sent to the AHL, where he dominated. But it took ages before he was called up despite the Islanders pushing for a playoff spot and needing goaltending help. He finished strong but fantasy GMs were not expecting only 12 wins out of him.

 

8. Derick Brassard and Bobby Ryan

These two are grouped together because they were both anticipated to be around the 60-point mark and it was hoped they would have great chemistry. Brassard wound up with just 38 points in 81 games while Ryan had 25 in 62 (a 33-point pace). Brassard had seven power-play points, down 67 percent from the previous year. Ryan had a total of five PPPts.

 

7. Tyler Johnson

With every passing month, I’m becoming more convinced that Johnson’s 72-point campaign two seasons ago will wind up as an outlier more than the norm. Many expected Johnson to have a bounce-back year, but it wasn’t to be. In Johnson’s last four seasons he’s posted 50, 72, 38 and 45 points. Maybe we should stop expecting 72-point seasons and more 45- to 50-point years.

 

6. The Colorado Avalanche

Exibit A as to the reason I’m grouping players together in some instances. Without doing it this way, more than half of this list would be Avs! They weren’t all bad: Nathan MacKinnon was okay and Mikko Rantanen was the only Avs player to hit 20 goals. But the rest of the team was horrendous. Here were the four worst:  

Matt Duchene: Just 41 points, a league-leading minus-34, nine power-play points and 160 shots.

Gabriel Landeskog: 33 points, a minus-25, 169 shots and jut 143 hits.

Tyson Barrie: His 38 points wasn’t that bad, but people were hoping for 50. He also had a minus-34 and doesn’t hit or block enough to be valuable in the peripheral categories.

Semyon Varlamov: Lost 17 of 24 games before going on the IR for the rest of the season. He had a 3.38 GAA and a .898 SV %.

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And then think of how bad the seasons were for the likes of Jarome Iginla, Mikhail Grigorenko, Joe Colborne and others. It was just an ugly season overall in Colorado.

 

5. Joe Thornton

We all knew he wouldn’t repeat a point-per-game player pace, but we were not expecting this poor of a season. Most had Thornton pegged as a 70-point player, but he missed that mark by 20. Ouch. Every aspect of his game took a step back: plus/minus, shots, power-play points, etc. Father Time is catching up.

 

4. Tyler Toffoli and Anze Kopitar

Toffoli had improved in almost every relevant fantasy category from 2013-14 to 2015-16. This year was a big step back. Sure, he battled injuries, but his per game numbers were all down. He had just 16 goals and 34 points, down from 31 and 59 the previous year. His plus-minus and shots were also down. Kopitar scored just 52 points this season. The last time he had that few points in a non-lockout NHL season? Never. His previous career worse was 61 during his 2006-07 rookie season. His shot totals were down, his faceoffs won were down, his plus-minus was down. Just an overall disappointing season.

 

3. John Tavares and Andrew Ladd

There was plenty of hope among poolies that Ladd would be a great fit alongside John Tavares. Some were hoping Ladd could return to his 60-point days. But that duo never had any chemistry. Ladd did finish with 23 goals, but had only 31 points and was a minus-14. He took 40 fewer shots than the season before, had about 40 fewer hits and nine fewer power-play points. Tavares was a late first-round selection in many leagues. But he delivered more like a third-round player. He had just 66 points, a plus-4 and 18 power-play points. He doesn’t hit or collect PIM. Although his shots were up slightly, that’s not enough to make up for another disappointing season for Tavares owners. They need him to be elite. And 66 points simply doesn’t cut it.

 

2. Evgeny Kuznetsov

More great things were expected from Kuznetsov. A year after posting a 77-point season, Kuz struggled for the first quarter of the season. He managed to turn it around but wound up with just 58 points. Part of that is because he wasn’t as productive on the power play, but he also didn’t shoot the puck as much as the previous year. 

 

1. Jamie Benn

Benn is an elite player and this type of season is not supposed to happen to elite players. I have 15 guides/projections from last summer. Fourteen of them projected Benn to have at least a point-per-game season and quite a few projected at least 90. Benn was the fifth player taken on average in Yahoo pools. But he had a setback in almost every fantasy category. Goals, assists, points, shots, hits. All down. It was a frustrating year to be a Benn owner. 

 

 

 

23 Comments

  1. larrylintz 2017-04-17 at 07:50

    Yep — Benn, Johnson and Barrie were 3 of my 7 key players, and explains my loss by 13 points despite having best auction, on paper, of my fantasy “career.”

    • Pyrrhus of Epirus 2017-04-17 at 09:26

      i cant believe in any league Johnson and Barrie and the term “key” players gets used together.

      • Luke 2017-04-17 at 09:27

        Not a lot of scoring defensemen out there. I get Barrie.

        • Pyrrhus of Epirus 2017-04-17 at 21:54

          different leagues obviously, but Barrie wasnt even a roster worthy D man in my league because we still insist on using +/- as a stat, despite me as the commisioner hating it. (for example a goal is 25 in my league, a minus 1 is -10 points). You simply cant win in my league with heavy double digit negative players like Barrie.

          • Tom Collins 2017-04-18 at 16:00

            He’s still drafted in majority of leagues. Barrie was taken late in the eighth round on average in Yahoo drafts and was the 20th dman taken off the board.

            I drafted him in one of my Yahoo leagues, but I dropped him pretty quickly.

      • Dobber 2017-04-17 at 10:36

        I get it. Was counting on Barrie in one league, and Johnson in another. To write off Johnson at age 25 wasn’t a good idea. And if he can ever stay healthy I think he can be star. I’m just doubting he can stay healthy

      • Tom Collins 2017-04-17 at 10:41

        You’d be surprised. Most prognosticators had Barrie at 50 points (47 was the lowest I saw, and 61 was the highest).

  2. Tony Broadway 2017-04-17 at 08:16

    Great list. Great points. Needs to be proofread.

    • Dobber 2017-04-17 at 08:46

      Thanks – done.
      Was up late last night so only gave it a quick run-through. Fixed up this morning

  3. Luke 2017-04-17 at 09:25

    Great list. The outcome of the season has me keeping Kucherov over Benn (we keep 2 forwards, 2 d, 1 g).
    Curious what you think of this attempt to upgrade Burns as my keeper.
    We count G A +/- SOG HIT PPP FW BLK

    Team A : Burns, Benn, 8th round pick
    Team B: Karlsson, 1st round pick

    • Tom Collins 2017-04-17 at 10:43

      Depends on who you could get for the first rounder. But I think Burns is a much better option in your format, no?

      • Luke 2017-04-17 at 13:30

        There will be some good options available in the 1st round. Burns is a good option, I’m thinking about his age, and the fact that he will soon be playing without some of the players which make San Jose dominant. Karlsson is a long-term option.

        • Tom Collins 2017-04-17 at 17:41

          I never look past next season. If you believe Burns is better next year, I’d stick with him.

  4. NHLGodfather 2017-04-17 at 10:00

    If the list were a bit longer, I would have to liked to add the Sedin’s and Loui Erickson. I know the Sedin’s are 36 years old, but I had high hopes for that Swedish trio killing it this season.

    • Tom Collins 2017-04-17 at 10:42

      The would have been good additions. I originally had 30-40 names on my list. Tough to whittle down. But I never had much hope for those three so their poor seasons probably didn’t register as high for me.

  5. Allan Phillips 2017-04-17 at 12:31

    What’s your feeling on Benn bouncing back next year under Hitch? I just acquired Benn for free in our parity draft, but at a high salary, basically 25% of my cap (set by auction). I have a lot of good, cheap players carrying over, so I can afford him, but I’m leery of Hitch suppressing some high-powered offense for the sake of improved D.

    • Tom Collins 2017-04-17 at 13:19

      I’m not worried about Benn per se. I’m more worried about trying to turn Seguin into a more defensive guy and the impact that will have on Benn.

  6. Bruce Allen 2017-04-17 at 16:05

    Jesse Puljujarvi a shoo in for Calder ,On what planet,? With Mathews ,Laine and Murray in the mix I don’t recall Puljujarvi ever being the Calder favorite.

    • Tom Collins 2017-04-17 at 17:40

      Sorry, I meant to say a shoo-in for a Calder nomination. In all those guides I have, the lowest anyone had projected for him was 51. The highest was 66. So there were a lot of high hopes for him.

  7. Striker 2017-04-18 at 14:26

    I blame Capuano for almost all that ailed NYI. It took him 30 plus games to pull his head out of his ? even remotely & start playing some of the right players in the right positions, by which point NYI’s season was doomed. In the end they came up 1 point short. Cost me a grand.

    Snow needed to find this team a 1st or 2nd line RW, something neither Bailey or Strome really are, Bailey will never truly be but can play as a #2 for some stretches but certainly not all season as the #1 both at 5 on 5 & on the PP & Strome may be but barely played RW when Capuano was in charge & not defensively responsible enough to play C. Tavares & Nelson should be top 2 which means Strome has to play RW with Cizikas & Quine in the fold at #3 & 4, although again Capuano took for every to deploy Quine as the #4 C.

    Ladd did end up with 23 goals, very respectable, 20 at even strength & rumors have surfaced he played most of the year injured. I didn’t like this signing but hard to produce consistently playing with the line-mates he was primarily deployed with a significant factor in his lack of assists. I can’t believe I’m defending Ladd. Got solid 2nd line PP time but again with players primarily not offensively gifted. NYI simply doesn’t have enough depth to ice to solid PP units like some.

    • Dobber 2017-04-18 at 14:40

      Bailey isn’t good enough to play with Tavares, but this year he was good enough to be called a “first liner”. His 44 points at even strength tied him for 34th in the league. 90 first line spots, so if you figure that maybe the 50 best ES producers deserve to be there, than he fits the definition. But I agree not ideal for Tavares, so I’m just splitting hairs here.

      Ladd I felt was in decline last year and had a feeling it may not work out this season. He was stuck with Tavares for the first 25 games of the season, it drove me nuts because he wasn’t doing anything with that quality ice time. He earned his crappy linemates in the second half by blowing with the good linemates in the first half.

      • Striker 2017-04-18 at 15:02

        I agree for the most part. 80% of the time we are fully on the same page, it’s the 20% we debate & discuss. For me Bailey benefited from his deployment with Tavares. Same scenario as Abdelkader the season before last in Detroit. With that deployment Bailey’s 13 goals & 51 points isn’t very impressive to me. Would have preferred almost any other option.

        • Dobber 2017-04-18 at 15:18

          (Bailey got 56)
          44 ES points with Tavares this year is better than what Ladd was doing on that line early on.
          Bailey turned 27, his prime is now here. This is the best we’ll see from him and I think he can repeat it for another two years.
          I’m not sure if there’s another winger out there that the Isles could get who can play with Tavares at even strength and get 44 points strictly even strength. Lee and Bailey are about it. I think Tavares, with improved numbers will have a 63-point Lee on one wing and a 57-point Bailey on the other. Not ideal, but neither was Kunitz/Dupuis for Sid. It will have to do until the next Sheary/Guentzel come along!

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