Warning. Warning. Level 5 Sleeper Alert!
After a very successful 2008 season, when he finished with 74 points and a productive playoffs, Brenden Morrow was on his way to another successful season. However, a blown knee limited Morrow to only 18 games. He tallied 5 goals and 10 assists in those games.
Morrow returned to the ice last week at Team Canada’s Olympic Orientation Camp. It was the first time he tested his knee and by all accounts, it was a successful test. Morrow is on the bubble to make the Olympic team, and he himself thought it was a surprise that he even got an invite to the camp. However, for Morrow, the camp was more about testing his repaired knee than impressing the Team Canada brass.
Morrow is the type of sandpaper that any team needs. He has a proven track record in the playoffs as a member of the Dallas Stars, and his reputation landed him on the second line at the orientation camp alongside Dany Heatley and Mike Richards. He was thrown in with the big guns right away and did not look out of place.
This is great news for fantasty managers.
Due to Morrow’s shortened season, his pre-season ranking is high. Morrow was a top 20 rotisserie fantasy player in 2008 when you mix in his 32 goals and 105 PIM’s. This same player, with a surgically repaired knee comes into this season outside of the top 100 in most pre-season rankings. For example, Yahoo! has dropped him to #137 among the likes of Alexei Ponikarovsky, Drew Stafford and Brooks Laich. those are all good players, but I would rather have a proven goal scorer who has a better shot at 70+ points than any of those guys.
This often happens to players who had their latest season cut short to injury. They are left on the curb and simply forgotten. Similar to Morrow, Paul Kariya and Danny Briere are superstars who are coming back from injury and should be targeted.
Morrow is surrounded with an underrated group of productive skaters in Dallas. Their top six includes – Mike Ribeiro, Brad Richards, Loui Eriksson, Fabian Brunnstrom, and Mike Modano – which is as deep as any top 6 core in the league.
It is likely that if the pre-season rankings have forgotten about Morrow, managers in your league have as well. If you want to win your pool this year, highlight and asterisk Brenden Morrow for the later rounds because he is sure to drop that low. If you get him as a depth forward, you automatically give yourself a better shot at winning your pool.
I would expect Morrow to comeback to form this season: 31 goals, 39 assists, 70 points, 95 PIMS.
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