NHL: Buffalo Sabres 2008-09 Fantasy Hockey Preview

We are now about a month away from the start of training camp for the 2008-09 NHL season, and my hockey-crazed brother and I have begun work on our own fantasy hockey magazine, predicting the stats for every player on the starting roster of an NHL team.

We hope we can accurately predict most players' statistics, and we hope to help you with your fantasy hockey teams. A new article will be posted every couple of days at the most, and some teams will come even sooner. We will be doing this in alphabetical order.

Buffalo Sabres

2008-09 Projected Lineup

Thomas Vanek-Tim Connolly-Maxim Afinogenov
Daniel Paille-Derek Roy-Jason Pominville
Paul Gaustad-Jochen Hecht-Ales Kotalik
Clarke MacArthur-Adam Mair-Drew Stafford

Henrik Tallinder-Tony Lydman
Jaroslav Spacek-Craig Rivet
Teppo Numminen-Andrej Sekera

Ryan Miller
Patrick Lalime

Fantasy Stud

Derek Roy. Exploded for 81 points last year, Roy should get some quality ice time with stars players such as Pominville and Vanek (once Connolly goes down with his annual injury).

Watch out for

Tim Connolly. Although very talented, this guy is just an injury waiting to happen as evidenced by his last three seasons.

Team scoring predictions for 2008-09

Player                        GP-G-A-P
1. Derek Roy               80-35-57-92
2. Jason Pominville       82-30-57-87
3. Thomas Vanek         82-41-40-81
4. Maxim Afinogenov   77-29-25-54
5. Ales Kotalik            79-25-25-50
6. Drew Stafford        71-20-25-45
7. Tim Connolly          59-10-35-45
8. Jochen Hecht         71-19-22-41
9. Craig Rivet             78-8-31-39
10. Jaroslav Spacek    78-11-25-36
11. Daniel Paille          74-20-15-35
12. Paul Gaustad        79-8-25-33
13. Tony Lydman        80-6-27-33
14. Clarke MacArthur   51-13-12-25
15. Henrik Tallinder      77-3-20-23
16. Adam Mair            74-7-17-24
17. Teppo Numinem     66-2-12-14
18. Andrej Sekera       74-4-5-9

Goalies

Ryan Miller 38-27-5 .909 SVP 2.58 GAA
Patrick Lalime 6-4-2 .899 SVP 2.79 GAA