Buy Low Candidates (Colorado Avalanche to Los Angeles Kings)

Buy Low Candidates (Colorado Avalanche to Los Angeles Kings)

Gabriel Landeskog: He has been praised for his hard work and touted as the next Captain for the Avalanche. He has a great plus/minus (14) on a weak team. His penchant for shooting (3/gm) and hitting (2.6/gm) gives him great fantasy value. He’s only a rookie but already has some real fantasy impact. He’s only a buy low candidate because I think he will be a point per game player in the next few years.

Matt Duchene: He’s a skilled player with a lot of upside. He had 67 points last season but has been battling through a knee injury this year which has limited him to 40 games. He has just returned after missing 7 weeks but is already pencilled in on the 1^st line with Stastny and Hedjuk. His points per game have regressed from 0.8375 to 0.60 this season. Surprisingly, he’s owned in only 72.8% of ESPN Fantasy Hockey Leagues.

Anze Kopitar: The acquisition of Mike Richards and Simon Gagne was supposed to bring in veteran depth and offensive firepower to the Kings. For most of the season, the team has struggled to score and this has hurt Kopitar’s fantasy value. His average draft position was 7.9 but his play puts him 31^st amongst all players. He is only 24 years old and still has a long career ahead of him. What’s troubling to me is that his shooting percentage has dipped below 10% for the first time in his career. I expect an elite level center to be playing better. Regardless, Kopitar is a beast and his defensive reliability is underappreciated. He’s a buy low candidate, but he’ll still be quite expensive to acquire.

Mike Richards: It was not so long ago that he was the captain and face of the Philadelphia Flyers. I had heard rumblings (hearsay) that he partied too hard and had lost the room to Pronger. Now he’s a shell of his former self, while playing on a LA team that is consistently at the bottom of the league in offensive production. His shooting percentage of 11.3% is the lowest he’s had since his 2^nd year in the league. He’s also projected to end the year with 47 points, abysmal for a player of his calibre. It’s hard to see his assist numbers go up if he continues to play with line mates that can’t score. Richards is a buy low candidate since his stock is so very low right now.