At the ripe old age of 32, McClement surprised everyone last year by doubling his output from 10 to 21 points over the previous season. McClement was particularly effective during January and February, scoring 14 points in 20 games. That said, McClement was expected to play a defensively-responsible role last season -- in other words, win faceoffs, kill penalties and shut down other teams’ best forwards. He will be charged with a similar job description this upcoming season, and it’s hard to imagine him posting a similar set of offensive totals for the second straight year. Manage your expectations accordingly.
McClement is a beast while shorthanded and a defensive anchor. But where does he settle in now that the Leafs have Dave Bolland in the fold? He could be relegated to the fourth line with wingers like Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren. His value lies on the ice, not in the fantasy arena. So avoid him unless your format somehow values things like shorthanded time on ice.
As a solid checking center, McClement was brought in to Leafland to shore up the bottom six and to bolster the penalty kill. He's only tallied one season with more than 30 points so his value lies in super deep specialty leagues. Nothing more.
McClement came over to Colorado from St. Louis in February in the Erik Johnson trade that saw Chris Stewart and Kevin Shattenkirk go the other way. In 24 games following his arrival in Denver, McClement posted just a single goal and three helpers, and had a negative plus-minus rating in 11 of those games, yet still managed to play 15-16 minutes per game most nights. As far as fantasy value is concerned, McClement is a role player who can kill penalties and is not expected to add much offense, making him attractive in only the deepest of fantasy formats.
McClement looked like a fourth-line center when the 2009 season began, but worked his way to the third line with consistent play and as a good face-off man. He's not a big scoring threat, but he improved his scoring success to a career-best 10.1 percent. The Blues like his work on the penalty kill and his ability to handle the tough coverage assignments on defense. He worked well with Alex Steen (24 goals) on the third line and will return in the same role in 2010.
With David Backes, Patrik Berglund and Keith Tkachuk expected to be the top-three centers on the roster, all that's left for McClement, who signed a three-year deal in the offseason, is fourth-line status in 2009-10. The Blues like the 26-year-old, who kills penalties, is the lead matchup guy defensively and won 52 percent of his faceoffs last season (2nd on team). He'll have a bigger role with the team in the next two years of his contract, and will remain a specialist this year.
At 25, McClement should be entering the prime of his career but he tailed off with just 22 points last season after 36 the season before. He is more of a defensive player and will see time killing penalties but don't expect much more than the 36 points he scored two seasons ago.
McClement's 36 points last season were a modest improvement from the 27 he posted the previous year. However, where he really picked up his game was on the defnsive end, going from a minus-23 in 2005-06 to a plus-3. McClement will line up as the #3 center for the Blues this season and as such, is probably not worthy of any fantasy consideration. However, the team would love to see him take a leap and be ready to assume a larger role. It just won't happen this year.
McClement showed some promise in his rookie season with the Blues last year. However, he is still projected to be the number three centerman on the Blues’ roster this season. No need to have him on your fantasy squad just yet—give him another season or two to develop.
