It was a nice return for Fantasy Hockey X last night but the first thing is this. We are now over at ProjectRoto but all show recaps will be done for XNSports. As everyone knows, Michael Clifford and I write about fantasy hockey quite a bit here and we want you, the fantasy hockey fan, to enjoy the banter. Christopher Pacheco is our third man in from RotoExperts and he helps bring the daily fantasy heat also.
My advice is to listen to the whole show. There was a bit of a spotlight on some things touched on in our articles from XNSports. The first episode was easily broken down into three simple categories. It will get more complex next week…honest.
- Forwards
- Defense
- Goaltending
Yes, we did this all in an hour. Every Tuesday night at 9:00 pm ET, the goal will be to give the fantasy hockey fan sixty minutes of spirited debate and knowledge. Also, if you have questions, get a hold of us via Twitter. No question is too crazy at all. So how did we break down our focus parts? It went a little something like this.
Forwards
Naturally, there were some volleys on the status of Evgeni Malkin. All anyone knows is that there is an undisclosed injury and it will impact his fantasy hockey value. The next question was how much and that is where the answers turned to the who knows realm.
There were ADP (Average Draft Position) debates on a number of guys including Claude Giroux, John Tavares, and even Ryan Johansen. The debate of course ratcheted up when we got to what to do with Alex Galchenyuk. There are a lot of scenarios in play and not one of them is really certain right now.
Defense
The age old debate of Erik Karlsson versus P.K. Subban was settled in about seconds. Picture Karlsson as a jack of all trades producer who accumulates in categories almost all across the board where Subban is very good but he is not close to the top spot. Shea Weber is a close third and a very close one at that.
Then we got down a little lower on some lists and talked about Victor Hedman, who could challenge for the Norris this year. His ADP is intriguing because it should go up as more drafts take place. One player that could head down however is Ryan Suter and that is because that 29+ minutes a night of ice time is like a ticking time bomb. At some point, those tough minutes are going to become a big problem.
Goalies
The wrinkle is that goalie is truly value driven dependent on the categories in a league is absolutely true. In most cases, elite goaltending does not necessarily win leagues. Balanced goaltending can serve the same purpose. In most drafts, Tuukka Rask, Henrik Lundqvist, Carey Price, and Jonathan Quick were going in the top 18-24 or the first two rounds in a standard 12 team league. Again, most leagues focus a bit more on offense so sometimes taking that extra center or forward and sliding back for a goalie can pay off. It all depends on your league and how the draft is going.
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Next week, we will be bringing in the daily fantasy hockey element as DFS should start showing its hands so to speak. Until then, thanks for listening to the show.
