Mr.Beantown

I wouldn't slate Quick in the 2 slot, as a NHL goalie, heck yes, as a fantasy goalie, heck no. Defensive team that allows very little shots, and he is notorious for playing fewer games doe to surgery, which he is also coming off this year once again!

I think that is a great trade, Parise is a stud in the fantasy world, he does it all in all areas that will give you some major points. Sedin is on the downturn in his career now and the Canucks aren't the 2011 Canucks. Great deal for you IMO. Keep in mind with Parise last year he was injured so Vanek played 11 more games than him last year and scored 2 LESS goals than Parise. He did have 11 more Assists but you think of them both on par of GP and Parise is jumping him in the scoring race. Also looking at the intangibles Hits 70-30 in favor of Parise, Blocks 45-17 for Parise, Power play Points 20-18 for Parise... AND this is all in 11 less games played.

Hate the Habs, but nice blog, very thorough and well written. Nice job

@hf101 Thanks for the comment! My issue with the guys you've listed is; there are so much more to Goalie points than wins. Lundquist was very close to my number 5, but here's why he missed out: Lundquist faces approx. 26 shots per game, he has a team that blocks everything thrown to the net and he has a capable backup that AV seems to trust in Cam Talbot. After a long cup run I think Av will go to Cam a bit more to make sure the King is rested as much as necessary. I see Lundquist at about 33-35 wins but just not there in the point grabbers like saves, shut-outs etc. He was neck and neck with Lethonen for 5th but Lethonen will get more starts and face a lot more rubber in my opinion. My issue with Quick is close to the same... Quick faces approx. 24 shots per game, looking at about 22 saves per game which doesn't bereak the bank. You couple that with his health in recent seasons (49 & 37 GP in the last 2 seasons) and there are some question marks there in a fantasy standpoint. Mason had a goo season last year, he was great, but I see the Flyer's D a little weaker this year and I haven't seen the track record to put him top 5, now, if he has another year this year like last, he is a serious candidate for 2015-16. Crawford is in the Quick situation as well, he only faces about 23 per game as his team is so dominant, and he is always good for a stinker of a game. I do see 32-35 wins but not the saves totals, shutouts (only 2 last year) or other small factors to have him in the top 5!

Seeing I have already rather the “Top 5 Goalies” for your fantasy leagues this year, I will move onto a position that seems to be lacking in comparison to others in the league. Here you will get your Top 5 Left Wingers for fantasy purposes in 2013-14. To keep it in context, these are the scoring categories I base my rankings on: Skaters Goal: 2 Assist: 1 +/-: 0.25 Shots: 0.15 GWG: 0.50 SHP: 0.25 PPP: 0.25 Hits: 0.15 Blocked Shots: 0.25 Penalties: -0.10 Goalies Wins: 2 Shutout: 2 Saves: 0.25 Goal: 10 Assist: 1 GA: -1 Loss: -1 Penalties: -0.10 This should help summarize how I look at some of the players I will be looking into: Here is a look on who you should be focusing on to fill your LW slots this year, in reverse order. 5) Chris Kunitz Too many people use the word “Crosby” when referring to Kunitz, the fact of the matter is, he is a fantasy owners dream. I’m not negating the “Crosby Factor” either as obviously when you play with the world’s best, it’s bound to have its benefits! For a pure fantasy standpoint, Kunitz offers much more than Goals and Assists! Kunitz should give you a steady games played as he is usually good for the 75-80 games a year and I wold say anywhere from 30-35 goals a season. Kunitz should always hover around the 60-70 point range, but in this format it’s not only that that makes him lethal. Fantasy intangibles that go overlooked with Kunitz are the amount of hits he lays (157 last year) his +/- (+25) and a pretty stellar Power Play Points number (22). You throw those numbers in with his Goal and Assist production and you have a bona fide star in the fantasy world! I see Kunitz slotting in approx. 2.05-2.10 FPG this year. 4) Gabriel Landeskog Landeskog, in his young NHL career, has become a Fantasy stud. Playing on a young and dynamic Avs team he is ever present the main scoring categories. The great thing about Gabe is that he is a hitting machine, he plays that great wall game that you need in a winger and he lays the body. I see him putting upwards of 200 hits this season! Hits aren’t all he offers as I see him, this season, grabbing somewhere around 28-30 Goals, 40-45 Assists and likely a solid +/- in the 20-25 range. At this rate the young Avalanche captain should grab you an upward trend in points for a long time to come! Expect Gabe to grab you a nice 2.05-2.10 FPG this year 3) Taylor Hall Hall really broke out on a sub-par Oilers team last year. With 80 Points last year he was an absolute joy to watch. I see him building on last year and surpassing it in 2014-15. Although hall plays with “reckless abandonment” he doesn’t quite grab you the hit and block totals one would expect, and in the last few years it’s been hard to be a + player in Oil Country (-15 last season). Where hall lacks in those categories he more than makes up in what I see as certainly 30+ goals with another 55-60 assists. I think Edmonton will be a much better team this year and can see Hall pushing the 100 point plateau with 90-92 points this year. I expect 2.15-2.20 FPG from Hallsy this season. 2) Zach Parise Parise, unfortunately last year, missed a bit of time playing in only 67 contests. Although his game totals weren’t there he still managed 29 Goals and 27 Assists. If projecting him to play 75-82 games this year I see Parise having an explosive season with some talented line mates. Parise loves to shoot the puck, that’s money in the bank for Fantasy owners. Last season in his 67 games he had a staggering 245 Shots on Goal, add in a good 25 Power Play Points and a nice +/- and Parise is your #2 LW on the year. I expect you’ll see 2.25-2.30 FPG. 1) Jamie Benn What else is there to say about Jamie Benn, he’s just downright filthy in the fantasy world. After a season with Seguin as his pivot he grabbed a cool 79 points with 34 of them goals. After a full season on chemistry behind them I see Benn capable of the 40 goals and 100 point mark this year. Not only does he fill the stat sheet with Goals and Assists he’s a full stat sheet monster with numbers like: 279 Shots on Goal, 118 hits, 60 Blocked Shots, +21, 3 Short Handed Points and 19 Power Play Points. Those numbers speak for themselves and this year I expect growth in every category! Benn will likely grab you a whopping 2.4-2.5 FPG this year, grab him early! Soon I will be also putting in my Top 5 for the remaining positions C, RW and D! Thanks again for reading and would love to answer any questions!

This is a precursor blog and will include my team I have assembled in the last 4 years. I will break down some of the rules each roster allows and will give you a deeper look into how in depth these leagues can get at a certain level. First off, I will start at the roster and cap management. On the Major roster you are allowed 25 players that can accumulate points (head to head for the week). We follow the same Salary Cap as the NHL on a year to year basis, this allows for great roster turnover and realistic thinking for each GM (and some nice FA bidding Wars). Here is my Team information including GM name, NHL roster size, My Cap situation and what my projected cap space is for next year. Owner - Tyler Total Roster Size - 23/25 Total Payroll - $64.8m Cap Space - $6.3m 2014-15 Projected Cap Space - $34.0m As you can see I am in pretty good cap situation, only 2 spots to fill (which I will from my minors) and a boatload of space in cap for next year, but that means I have a tonne of players to re-sign! So getting into my main roster, here are my Centers: (Player Name, Cap Hit, Season their contract ends) Centers (4) - $18.4m Ryan Getzlaf, $5.9m (2015-16) Patrice Bergeron, $3.6m (2016-17) Anze Kopitar, $5.2m (2016-17) T.J. Oshie, $3.7m (2016-17) Sexy, I know!! I have put a lot of work into getting these names and keeping them away from FA and they are all locked up for the next few years to nice contracts. I took home the Wayne Gretzky Award last year for the best group of Centers in the league. Let’s take a look at my LW, certainly my biggest need at the moment: Left Wing (3) - $7.7m Mason Raymond, $1.8m (2015-16) Bobby Ryan, $3.6m (2016-17) Brandon Saad, $2.3m (2015-16) LW is at a premium and I was happy to hang onto Ryan for a good priced extension as hit totals in the last few seasons were marred by injury. Grabbed Raymond at a great time and he produced way over expectations and I was able to grab Saad last year at the Trade Deadline! Right Wing, I am overstocked at the moment; maybe too much of a good thing, but I have some names on the Trade block now! Right Wing (6) - $14.9m Jarome Iginla, $3.0m (2014-15) Marian Hossa, $5.1m (2015-16) Emerson Etem, $0.7m (2015-16) Ales Hemsky, $1.1m (2015-16) Radim Vrbata, $3.2m (2016-17) Kyle Okposo, $1.8m (2014-15) I was able to grab Hemsky cheap this off-season in hopes he comes out strong in Dallas, and with him on a beauty 1.1M per year I think it will be a steal! Okposo will be a huge decision for me at the end of this season as he will need a big raise from his paltry 1.8M per year. Here is my core of Dmen, I love this group as they get me a tonne of points not only with offensive output but in a huge way of blocked shots, hits and PP Points. Defensemen (6) - $16.2m Ryan Suter, $4.5m (2014-15) Jake Gardiner, $1.4m (2014-15) Patrick Wiercioch, $1.0m (2014-15) Torey Krug, $4.0m (2016-17) Sami Vatanen, $0.8m (2015-16) Alex Pietranglo, $4.5m (2015-16) I was able to grow a lot of these through my farm system like Gardiner, Krug (who I grabbed long ago before he was a household name), Vatanen and Wiercioch. NOW, here are my pride and joy's lol. I was able to grab these guys when they were backup's (except Quick) and I help onto them hoping they would turn out to what they are now, and it's paid off huge. Only issue is that Bernier and Bob need massive raises at the end of this season as they are on contract years! Goalies (3) - $6.2m Jonathan Bernier, $1.2m (2014-15) Sergei Bobrovsky, $2.0m (2014-15) Jonathan Quick, $3.0m (2016-17) Nice looking trio of tendy's here!!! Only allowed to have 3 active Goalies in this league as well, this keeps goalie hoarding to a minimum! Buyouts (0) - $0.0m Let's take a look at my AHL team, which is the direct feeder into my NHL team (Cap does not count against NHL cap until they are called up. All these players are on 2-Way contracts and we have a AHL cap as well, that way players are not stashed. Some hardcore drafting and trades built me this gem of a farm team. St. John's IceCaps Total Roster Size - 16/30 IceCaps Cap Space: $2.2m Brock Nelson, $0.5m (2014-15) Zemgus Girgensons, $1.5m (2015-16) Mika Zibanejad, $1.0m (2014-15) Nick Bjugstad, $0.2m (2014-15) Alex Galchenyuk, $2.5m (2014-15) Taylor Beck, $0.7m (2015-16) Jermey Morin, $0.7m (2015-16) Tomas Tatar, $0.2m (2014-15) Brendan Gallagher, $0.2m (2014-15) Richard Rakell, $0.7m (2015-16) Mark Cundari, $0.8m (2014-15) Olli Maatta, $1.0m (2015-16) Jonas Brodin, $2.0m (2014-15) Codi Ceci, $1.5m (2014-15) I need to make some moves to call up some guys as they are only in the minors right now to keep my cap relief and player limits in compliance in the off-season. Guys like Zibanejad, Galchenyuk and Gallagher have to be called up ASAP while I wil want to call other up as soon as I move contracts from the NHL team. Minors note: A player has to be given a contract before they hit 40 NHL games played and can only keep 2 way status contracts until that 40 game limit as well. Most my 2 ways will end this year as I was able to give them their 2 way contracts close to their 40 Game limit! Below we see my "Junior Team" this will consist of guys I own but not have tendered contracts to, they can be in this category until 39 games of NHL experience sets, then they have to be signed to a contract. Only a small sample here as I have graduated a lot of players from this list and only had 1 draft pick this season (Hawryluk) as I was active in last years trade deadline in moving most my picks for the rookie draft! Moncton Wildcats Total Roster Size - 2 Jayce Hawryluk, N/C (0 games) Joesph Morrow, N/C (0 games) So, as you can see, this is very in-depth and as life-like NHL GM as we can make it. This team I have been GMing since the start of the league in 2010 and is something that is a blast to play because of the depth of knowledge you get to use that would apply to a real NHL GM's job. Thanks for reading and would love to answer any league questions or fantasy questions!

I have been "Fantasy Hockey Blogging" for a few years now, and thought I would drop a small one on here! I have been a (self-appointed) Fantasy Hockey Guru for a few years now. I play in some insanely competitive leagues that mimic all life like NHL systematics for Drafting, ELC's, Contract renewals etc... so after years of this I have always had a knack of planning, scouting, building and obsessing over my teams, players and rivals. All in this has garnered me the opportunity to learn about Fantasy Hockey and look at the NHL in a different scope. As a little league background that I play in, I usually use the scoring categories as follows: Skaters Goal: 2 Assist: 1 +/-: 0.25 Shots: 0.15 GWG: 0.50 SHP: 0.25 PPP: 0.25 Hits: 0.15 Blocked Shots: 0.25 Penalties: -0.10 Goalies Wins: 2 Shutout: 2 Saves: 0.25 Goal: 10 Assist: 1 GA: -1 Loss: -1 Penalties: -0.10 This should help summarize how I look at some of the players I will be looking into: Starting off I will look at the Goalies, and will try to forcast my top 5 in each position for the upcoming year. Also looking on doing, breakout scorers this season as well as rookie surprises! So here they are, in reverse order: 5) Kari Lethonen Now most people don't look at Lethonen and scream a Top 5 goalie, but in a fantasy standpoint, he's a bona fide stud. Lethonen is good for 60-65 starts and approximately 27-28 saves per game on average. Couple this with the fact that Lindback won’t push him too hard for the starters role and that Dallas will be an improved team I see him grabbing a nice few wins (35+) some complimentary shutouts (5+) and a decent Goals Against (likely in the 140-145 range). This will make Kari a very solid fantasy producer where you can hope on about a 5.2-5.4 Fantasy Points per Game (FPG) 4) Sergei Bobrovsky Bob, in the last couple seasons, has become a Fantasy STUD. Playing on an ever improved Blue Jackets team he has really rocket amongst the stellar fantasy providers. I see BOB getting close to 65 starts this season as CBJ looks to make another Playoff appearance. The thing with BOB; even though CBJ is getting better he still faces A LOT of rubber. You can look for close on 28-29 saves per game which translates into some nice point totals (even when coupled with a loss). With high shot totals and a respectable Columbus team I see BOB giving you a very healthy 5.4-5.5 FPG. 3) Semyon Varlamov Patrick Roy likes to ride his starting goalie and I don't see this changing with Reto Berra as the back-up in Colorado next season. You can expect 65-66 starts from Verly this year, which means some valuable points on a young dynamic Avs team. Varly faces an absurd amount of shots for a better team, so he gets a lot of shots but also gets the run support. Varlamov will likely get close to 30 saves per game this year, with 40 wins and a few shutouts he will be a huge point grabber. I am expecting somewhere in the 5.6-5.8 FPG range this year! 2) Carey Price Price was amazing last season, there is no arguing that! Fantasy wise he was just as good. With Montreal likely to be a Top 4-5 seed in the East this year I can see Price grabbing 65 Games with 35 wins (at least)... now thats some nice Fantasy value. I don't think Price will have as many saves per game as some of the other shot stoppers, but I see him getting 27-28 Saves per game this season. Where Price grabs some huge points is in the Shut-Out category. When he is in the zone he is almost unbeatable, with that being said he's good for 6-7 shutty's this year that’s some point production. I am looking at Carey getting somewhere in the 5.9-6.0 FPG this year! 1) Tuukka Rask Ok... Ok... Bruins fan picking Tuukka as #1!!! HOMERRRR.... no, but seriously the numbers will speak for themselves. Rask playing on one of the top teams in a weaker conference will get a large win total this year! I could see Tuukka getting 39-40 wins this year as Coach Julien will ride him with an inexperienced backup in Svedberg behind him this season. Rask grabs the wins and he gets (like Price) the Shutouts! Look for another 7 this year all the while with 27-28 Saves Per game, I see Tuukka grabbing you a sweet 6.0-6.1 FPG As it's all in fun this is just how I look into my Fantasy picks for the years coming up. Other leagues will vary in scoring, matchups etc. but this is just a little based on some leagues I play in. Hoping to do every position as well as some sleepers and players you would never think to pick that actually grab you some great value from the bargain bin. Also, in the future can post my team with how it's developed and look into my AHL and ECHL teams I have as feeders into my 25 man NHL squad. Thanks for reading my first blog around here and would love to have any insight or answer any questions you all may have.