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Finally!! It only took 6 months longer than he
thought it would but
Byron Dafoe has found a soft place to land. Ok, maybe not so soft, but
at least he can pay the bills again. How desperate must a goaltender be to
actually sign a contract with the defensively challenged Atlanta Thrashers.
No matter what he'll say about helping to turn the team around, etc. etc.,
he signed this deal for two reasons: 1) he needs a salary coming in; and 2)
he needs to prove to the league and himself that he can still play. The only
realistic way for him to achieve both goals was to sign with Atlanta.
Fantasy Impact: Lord Byron will NOT lead
the Thrashers to the Stanley Cup. Nor will he lead you to the top of your
league's goaltending categories. This team has bigger problems than
goaltending.
Milan Hnilicka and
Pasi Nurminen aren't slouches - they just don't get much support. Look for
him to struggle early, and then settle into a bit of a groove as the team heads into
early January. At this point he may put up numbers reasonable enough to pick
him up. Then, once the novelty of being back in the NHL wears off and he
realizes the frustration of facing 35+ shots every game his play will fade
as we head down the stretch. The only other thing to be worried about is
conditioning. If he rushes back too soon, a groin or knee injury would not
be out of the question. Assuming he stays healthy look for him to play about
40 games. He'll probably win about 12-15 games, have a GAA very close to
3.00, with a relatively reasonable SV% in the .902 to .904 range. Our advice
would be to leave him for someone else. |
