A few weeks ago, I wrote about two goalies that I will be avoiding at all costs this year. The biggest reason is I don’t think they are very good, but the secondary reason being that I just don’t trust them. With goaltending being such an integral part of your fantasy hockey success, you don’t […]
Fantasy Hockey: First-Time Full-Time Goalies Read More »
The excitement that surrounds rookie players in any fantasy sport is kind of surreal. The hope is always that “this guy will be the guy that explodes” and somehow you end up with a Top-10 player with a waiver wire pick-up or late-round pick. I have written about this before in passing and will get in
Fantasy Hockey: Second-Year Players Are Talented But Risky Read More »
Finding value in fantasy hockey isn’t so easy. You won’t get many guys coming out of nowhere to put up huge seasons like you’ll see in other sports. Keep this in mind: Since the 2004-2005 lockout, there have been eight rookies to come into the league and average at least 0.73 points/game (which would be a 60-point pace in a full season) and played at least 70 games. These names are Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Paul Stastny, Patrick Kane, Nicklas Backstrom, Jeff Skinner and Anze Kopitar. When you are talking about the last five seasons alone, that list of eight is cut down to Skinner alone.
Fantasy Hockey: Finding Value In Unlucky Defensemen Read More »
The idea of regression is an important concept in any fantasy sport. As I wrote about in July, identifying regression candidates and avoiding the over-payment that comes with it is key to maximizing value on draft day. Regression is important in fantasy hockey among defensemen. If a defenseman goes from scoring 10 goals one season
Fantasy Hockey: Markov, Timonen On My Do-Not-Draft List Read More »
Every year, I have a personal list of players I will generally completely avoid. This could be for a myriad of reasons: anticipated decline, trade to a lesser team, maybe a Stanley Cup finalist (between the late finish last year, a short off-season and the Olympics in February, it will be a jam-packed 430-ish days
Fantasy Hockey: Do Not Draft Mike Smith or Ondrej Pavelec Read More »
The Winnipeg Jets locked up two very important pieces to their franchise within the last week: Right Winger Blake Wheeler was signed to a 6-year deal with a cap hit of $5.6 million per season while defenseman Zach Bogosian got a 7-year deal with a cap hit of $5.142 million per season. The timing of these contracts
Jets Sign Pair of Underrated Players in Wheeler and Bogosian Read More »
Last week, I wrote about how a team’s possession rates probably won’t make a goalie’s stats much worse unless the goalie sucked to begin with (Steve Mason), but how a team’s penalty killing can affect just about any goaltender for better (James Reimer in 2013) or for worse (James Reimer from 2010-2012). There’s a concept
Fantasy Hockey: Eastern Conference Goaltenders and Blow-Up Rates Read More »
On Thursday I wrote about how a team’s possession rates probably won’t make a goalie’s stats much worse unless the goalie was terrible to begin with (Steve Mason), but how a team’s penalty killing can affect just about any goaltender for better (James Reimer in 2013) or for worse (James Reimer from 2010-2012). There’s a
Fantasy Hockey: Avoid Goaltenders Who Blow Up Your Head To Head Teams Read More »
