October 22, 1998

Wow. I am really kicking some ass so far. My 74 points is 21 ahead of Charlie and Mike in second place. This week I won't bore you with a recap of the scores, but here are a few items of note from the beginning of the season.

• Notable goose eggs so far: Duchesne (Chris), Kozlov (Jay), Stumpel (Mike), and Kamensky (Bill). There are some other zeroes, but those are the most surprising. Roy (Tony) would have made this list if the Avalanche wouldn't have scored two goals in the final minute to salvage a tie against the Kings for their first point of the season.
• Rich made a nice recovery from last week's low point total of 9 ending up with 43. And he got Weight back. He still lost though.
• Bill finished last with 29 points. Not a good score in an extended week with goalies. Nieuwendyk should be back soon to help at least some.
• Tony wins with the third lowest score. I guess this kind of luck is why he has the best record from the past two years.

The moves were included in yesterday's summary. Don't forget, if you want to pick up any of the guys dropped, you have to let me know by Tuesday at 8 pm. Also, remember that you can swap reserves and it doesn't count as a move. The swap moves are the moves on the summary without an effective date.

On the next page, you will see the price paid for each player in the auction. I am also posting this on the web page, since you may want to refer to it again sometime, especially before next season's draft. Here is an early look at the top bargains and top overpaid players. I am sure I will update this a few times over the course of the season.

Top bargains:

• Sakic (Grant) $21 - This is a close one and could go either way, but I think he will be close to the guys in the superstar group above him. At worst, I overpaid a couple dollars for him if he ends up a step down from them.
• Sydor (Grant) $4 - If I don't have one or two guys on my own bargain list, then I am not bidding right. Sydor has a decent chance to outscore Zubov, and yes, I thought this at the auction and I am not just saying this because he happens to be leading the NHL and EFHL in scoring.
• Zhitnik (Mike) $1 - I guess everyone was scared by his holdout, but Zhitnik did the same thing last year.
• Svehla (Mike) $1 - He wasn't holding out, so I don't know what our excuse is.

Top overpaid players:

• Mogilny (Bill) $17 - So he once scored 76 goals in a season. His scoring should be down even from last year due to the apparent loss of Bure and a quickly declining Messier. Plus he gets hurt a lot and when he does play, he doesn't always give 100%.
• Leetch (Grant) $15 - Considering that no other defensemen went for over $11, I would say I overpaid.
• Barnes (Rich) $8 - Barnes still finds himself on the top line, but will miss Francis. Probably could have been had for less than $5.
• Jovanovski (Chris) $2 - Could have been picked up after the draft as a free agent, although who would want to.

Finally, a quick look at teams affected by guys still holding out.

Chris - With Friesen recently signed, Chris has 2 holdouts left, Ozolinsh and Niedermayer. However, this leaves him short one defensemen. Niedermayer seemed close to signing recently but now has signed to play some games in the IHL. I guess we have to remember that this is the Devils we are talking about. Remember Guerin from last year? The Avs desperately need Ozolinsh, but he is still in Latvia and I haven't heard anything about them being close. Ozolinsh and Niedermayer would be a huge upgrade over Jovo and nobody.

Rick - Palffy is the highest priced holdout from the auction. His salary demands ($6.5 million per year) are pretty ridiculous. Hard to say what will happen here.

Rich - Weight has just signed to at least give Rich six forwards. Bure remains a holdout. He is likely to be traded, maybe to the Rangers. The question is when.

Charlie - Picked up Nedved last week probably on the news that the Rangers were interested. Nedved is a poor man's Mogilny, although he doesn't get hurt as much.