Alec Martinez: Ready To Disappoint Fantasy Managers Again?
Let me just first by saying, I love Alec Martinez the real life player. I advocated for Vegas to pony up and re-sign him. I’m very much glad they did. However, when it comes to fantasy, Martinez is now very much overrated for the second consecutive season.
This is one we got right last year. That great moron Sean Allen ranked Martinez as literally the 15th best player in fantasy. Yes, he is that clueless. It’s one team Trey knew he was going to get right the whole time. While much of the season was injury plagued for Martinez, even in the games he was healthy, the VGK defenseman didn’t come close to his previous season. Just eight total points in 26 games. While the block numbers were good (68) the ice time was down. Long story short; It was a winner blindfolded.
Just real quick, how nervous do we think Sean Allen is? Moving on.
This year, Martinez isn’t ranked so egregiously. I did not list Martinez on the Cheese list because I felt as though it was beating a dead horse. The ESPN rankers have Martinez ranked 91st overall and the 20th ranked defenseman. I’m sorry but that’s just SOOOOO wrong.
A: The data suggests that Martinez is unlikely to have the same number of blocks under new head coach Bruce Cassidy. Over the last two years, Vegas ranked 1st and 2nd in blocked shots under head coach Pete DeBoer. When Cassidy was in Boston, his Bruins never ranked higher than 24th in the league over the last five years. Is that just worse personnel or just the defensive system that’s in place? I’ll go with the latter.
B: The player who is going to have the best fantasy season on this VGK team is Shea Theodore. Theodore is about to head into his age-27 season and is coming off a career-high 54 points last year. Things are different with Cassidy in town. Gone are the days where Alex Pietrangelo makes a great retrieval and then he sits in his defensive zone looking to make a hero ball pass up to a breaking forward ahead. Guys like Theodore are now going to be asked to skate and handle the puck more like Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk did in Boston.
Instead of getting hot and bothered about the blocks, the safe bet here is that Theodore hits the 40-assist club for the first time in his career. Those first-line power play duties are going to be a game-changer and I expect Theodore to have a big year.
Of course, the ESPN rankers don’t get it and they have Shea Theodore ranked 115th overall. That right there is the entire problem. Why am I picking Martinez ahead of Theodore in any fantasy league? Make it make sense!
Nothing against my guy Marty but he won’t be on my fantasy team this year. To be in the top 100 is just totally outrageous even if I think he’s a good real life player.
