Martin Erat

Erat played in 45 games last season, scoring five goals and notching 19 assists. He dislocated his elbow at the end of the season and opted not to have surgery and rehab the elbow on his own. He came to Washington in exchange for highly-touted prospect Filip Forsberg and played in just nine games. He has consistently been in the 45-points plus range for the last eight seasons and a down year in 2012-2013 may bump him down in drafts and make him a nice late round grab.

Erat quietly went about his business last season, scoring a career-high 58 points which was also tops on the team. Furthermore, his plus-minus rating of plus-12 was third-best on the team -- not bad for a guy who routinely misses at least 10 games to injury every year. Erat may not be an elite scorer, but his consistency year-in and year-out make him very valuable in most fantasy formats where predictable outcomes are worth their weight in gold. Bottom line? You know what you�re getting with this guy. Draft accordingly.

While far from one of the NHL's best players, Erat is without a doubt one of the most consistent. Last season, his sixth with the Predators, Erat posted 50 points (17G, 33A) in 64 games, following seasons of 49, 50, 57, 57 and 49 points, respectively. With Erat, what you see is what you get. You know he's going to miss 10-15 games every year to a varied assortment of injuries, and you know he'll wind up somewhere in the 50-55 point range. If there's room for a guy like this on your fantasy roster, by all means draft away.

Over the course of a full season, Erat is about as steady as they come with six consecutive seasons of 50-ish points under his belt. Unfortunately, he will drive fantasy owners crazy with his lack of consistency from week to week - he can look unstoppable at times, then disappear for long stretches. The other area of concern for Erat is his frequent injuries, having missed an average of almost 10 games a season over the past four years. In 2009-10, he scored 49 points in 74 games, spending much of that time on the team's top line alongside Jason Arnott and Steve Sullivan. Looking ahead to next season, Erat will become the team's highest-paid player and coach Barry Trotz will no doubt use him accordingly. If he can stay healthy, and meshes well with new #1 center Matthew Lombardi, he might challenge the 60-point plateau, but don't count on it. He's a fairly safe bet for another 50-point season, but not much more.

Erat is 28 now, so we pretty much know what he is. Last season in 71 games he scored 17 goals and put up 50 points. He looks primed to score about 20 goals and put up about 50 points again, and it should be noted his last five seasons he's put up double digit power play assists. As far as secondary scorers go, you can do worse than Erat, but you likely can do better as well.

If Erat thought a lot was expected of him last season, he'll have to redefine his perspective in 2008-09. The Predators will lean on the young Czech to increase his offense in the upcoming season to make up for the likely loss of Alexander Radulov. Erat scored a career-best 23 goals in 2007-08 and coach Barry Trotz will expect him to fire even more shots on goal this season. A safe assumption would be that the Predators expect to see Erat in the 30-goal range for the first time in his career. He has that potential, but will have to work hard and change his style of play to a degree to reach that milestone. We wouldn't rule out a 25-goal, 65-point campaign for Erat, and both would be career highs.

The Czech forward will enter his sixth full NHL season this year with Nashville. He posted a career-best 57 points in just 68 games last season. Erat will be expected to keep the production coming due to all the offense that was lost to free agency and trades during the off season. We expect Erat to slightly increase his goal production this season, but his overall point production will drop somewhat. A 20-goal 50-point campaign should be in order.

Entering just his fifth NHL season, Erat posted career highs last year with 20 goals, 49 points and 16 points on the man-advantage. Erat has been slowly expanding his offensive role with the Preds over the last couple seasons, and it could reach its pinnacle this season with the personnel changes that have taken place. Erat could likely see a lot of playing time with Steve Sullivan and Jason Arnott as well as possibly seeing some time on the Predators’ top power-play unit. Erat will likely push the offensive bar another rung higher this season.

Erat posted a more-than-respectable 49 points in 76 games in 2003-04 -- not bad for a 22-year-old in just his second full NHL season. If Sullivan ends up at center, Erat should find himself as the #2 left winger on the depth chart, with some nice linemates (perhaps even Sullivan himself) to help him reach the 50-point plateau.