Antoine Vermette: Geek of the Week

Terry Campkin

2014-10-13

AntoineVermette

This week’s in-depth player analysis – Antoine Vermette is underrated in fantasy hockey

Wow, is it ever nice to have NHL hockey back. The summer flew by for me so all of this NHL action sort of hit me like a fire hose and I was a little less prepared for my drafts than I am accustomed to (but probably still did 10 x more prep than a reasonable person would). Now that all of our drafts are over though, we enter a very critical point of the fantasy season that is often overlooked: the first month. A lot of people like to watch their team for a month before and there is certainly a lot of merit to doing that; but there is a ton of information on un-owned players available in the first couple weeks (powerplay lines, TOI etc) that can allow you to be ahead of the curve and grab some value players to help make up for some of your shortfalls at the draft table. Today I take an in-depth look at one of them to take advantage of: Antoine Vermette.

Antoine Vermette to me is the prototypical depth fantasy add. He's good for 20 goals

160

1005

Simply by adding FOW as a category, FHG shows that Vermette would have jumped 45 spots to the 75^th most valuable player last season. That's incredible (7^th round) value for a player who is only 17% owned. Granted, this league setup with FOW included is pretty much the best possible league Vermette could be owned in but Vermette also contributes decently in PIMs and blocked shots so there are many other leagues where he would be a great own. He literally does it all.

Now on to my favorite part: the opportunity. Everything I have written to this point on Vermette has been using last season's actual numbers. The values I have shown are real, they are math and they happened. They aren't really disputable. Since last season though, Ribeiro and Vrbata have left the dessert, opening up huge opportunities on offence and Vermette is poised to be the 2^nd line centre, behind that band-aid boy Martin Hanzal. Vermette has never had a better look at quality minutes.

Last season, Vermette averaged 2:26 on the powerplay per game which was 5^th amongst Coyote forwards. In game one this season he saw 3:23 on the man advantage which was tops amongst Arizona forwards. He also saw an identical 3:23 on the PK (again, tops amongst forwards). All of this special team action is fantasy gold for Vermette owners. If the extra PP time keeps up and his production benefits, Vermette would be an even better own. What would Vermette's value look like if his additional PP time netted him say… 8 more points, 15 more shots and 4 more PPP? Take a look:

Rank	Player	FHG Value	G	A	+/-	SOG	PPP	SHP	Hits	FOW
75	Antoine Vermette	73.3	21	21	0	160	13	3	90	1005
48	Antoine Vermette	89.9	28	25	0	175	17	3	90	1005

Suddenly, Vermette would be the 48^th most valuable player in my league! Now let's not get too ahead of ourselves here and start trading Alexander Steen for Antoine Vermette. Let's keep some perspective. What I am saying is that in a league with the categories above if Vermette hits his upside he would be the 48^th most valuable guy. There's a lot of stuff that would have to happen for it to come to fruition, I just wanted to show his absolute upside….and it is high. Don't try to acquire Vermette as a highly ranked guy – try to get him cheap, preferably off the waiver wire and then hope the upside comes in.

The bottom-line takeaway for Vermette is that there is a good chance he deserves to be owned in your league and he definitely deserves to be owned in more than 17% of leagues out there. At his 2013 output (and depending on your league settings) his value could easily be around 100-120 and even higher in FOW leagues. With the opportunity in front of him this season though, he could easily outperform that and have some solid mid-level value… To find out how much he is worth in your specific league sign on to FHG today and have a look. Then, take your analysis to the next level, open the what-if? tool and put in some upside scenarios for Vermette to see just how valuable he could become. You will probably be surprised to see the value…don't trip over yourself rushing to hit the add button.