re this year s biggest and worst opinion bryan smale smale healthy uwaterloo ca writes i was thinking about who on each of the teams were the mvps biggest surprises and biggest disappointments this year team biggest biggest team mvp surprise disappointment hartford whalers sanderson cassells corriveau my votes fwiw team mvp pat verbeek he fans on of goal mouth feeds but he still has goals after a terrible start and has been an examplary sp team captain throughout a tough couple of seasons honorable mention nick kypreos and mark janssens probably more appropriate in the unsung heroes category than mvp but kypreos goals pim has been the hardest working player on the team and janssens is underrated as a defensive center and checker i guess i place a greater emphasis on hard work than skill when determining value biggest surprise geoff sanderson he had goals and points last season as a center then moved to left wing and has so far put up goals and points he now has a new whaler record power play goals most all coming from the right wing faceoff circle his garden spot honorable mention andrew cassels and terry yake the kiddie quartet of sanderson poulin nylander and petrovicky have been attracting the most attention but cassels is just and will score close to points this season he has quite nicely assumed the role of number one center on the team and works very well with sanderson yake bounced around the minors for a number of seasons but is still and will put up about goals and points this season yake like sanderson started performing better offensively once he was converted from center to wing although lefty sanderson went to the left wing and righty yake went to the right side biggest disappointment hands down john cullen cullen had a disasterous point season last year his first full season after the trade cullen started the season off of summer back surgery and fell flat on his face appropriate since he spent all of his whaler career flat on his ass and whining about it cullen scored just point on games was a clubhouse malcontent commanded the powerplay to a success percentage with sanderson and sulked his way out of town worst of all his year m contract had three years left to run so no one would give up any more than the nd round draft pick the maple leafs offered to hartford honorable mention steve konroyd also subpar after signing a year m contract eric weinrich who showed flashes of competence but overall has played poorly jim mckenzie who was a much better hockey player two seasons ago than he is now and frank pietrangelo who only seemed to play well when sean burke was out for an extended period and he got to make a number of starts in a row sg a real live hartford whalers season ticket holder steveg cadkey com
