Deep Dive Part 1 (2015)

Doran Libin

2015-01-20

bickell

 

Looking deep for sleeper options to grab off the wire. Here are some suggestions…

This week is a search for some deeper value options, largely third and fourth liners, or fourth through sixth defensemen. Also included in this group are players who have been injured for a large portion of the season and as such have diminished numbers. These are predominantly players who offer value through periphery categories such as hits, penalty minutes and blocks. As they are quite sparingly owned they make for good depth options in deeper multi-category leagues.

 

Anaheim

Devante Smith-Pelly (Fantrax – 40% owned) – When Corey Perry was injured Smith-Pelly played with Ryan Getzlaf on the Ducks' top line and racked up half his even strength points for the season during that time. Smith-Pelly only averages a shot per game so his production is not set for a major spike. He gets limited power play time so the bulk of Smith-Pelly's production comes at even strength meaning his linemates are very important. However, even when he is with lesser linemates Smith-Pelly gets 2.75 hits per game making him a top 40 hitter in the league.

 

Colorado

Cody McLeod (Fantrax – 20% owned) – Cody McLeod is a peripherals beast with

127 hits, 93 penalty minutes and 24 blocks in 46 games. That puts him in the top 15 in hits and third in penalty minutes. As long as you do not expect a lot of points, McLeod has six points in 46 games, he can add a lot of value to teams in multi-category leagues. Furthermore, despite starting less than 50% of his shifts in the offensive zone McLeod does not give up many goals. This could be because he does not play much or because he plays against mediocre competition but whatever the reason is not a risk for a big minus.

John Mitchell (Fantrax – 10% owned) – John Mitchell has missed 14 games this year so his totals are a little underwhelming. The rate at which he is scoring, 1.9 points per 60 minutes played, though is impressive given that he only plays 14 minutes per game on the third line. His pace has actually improved from .31 points per game in the first quarter, to .55 points per game in the second and he has started the third quarter with .6 points per game pace. He complements that production with 2.3 hits and a block per game.

Dallas

Erik Cole (Fantrax – 24% owned) – Reports of Cole's death were premature as he started the season getting less than 13 minutes of ice time each game. He is now closer to 15 minutes per game as well as 36% of the available power play time on the Stars. The combination of increased power play time and his new spot on the wing with Ales Hesmky and either Jason Spezza or Shawn Horcoff has lead to a boost to Cole's production. His production has jumped so much that he has 11 points in his last 10 games. He is also averaging 2.5 hits per game, with 31 hits in his last 10 games.

Jamie Oleksiak (Fantrax – 18% owned) – The main drawback to relying on Oleksiak is that he is not a sure thing to play every day. This can be seen in Oleksiak only having played in only two thirds of Dallas' games this season. In the 30 games that he has played he is averaging .27 points per game so the point production is lacking. He makes up for the limited point production with 70 hits and 38 blocks in his 30 games. He has put up as many combined hits and blocks as Jordie Benn or Jason Demers have in 45 games. That pace would put him top 50 in hits and top 100 in blocks.

 

Edmonton

Matt Hendricks (Fantrax – 12% owned) – Impressively Hendricks only starts about 10% of his shifts in the offensive zone. Probably because there are only one or two others forwards on the Oilers who have an inkling of how to play defense. Most of the Oilers forwards treat it as a slip and slide, no stopping until they have passed through. With those kind of zone starts there is very limited potential for major point production. He more than makes up for the lack of scoring by averaging a penalty minute and block per game, and 2.75 hits per game. This ranks him in the top 35 in the league for both hits and penalty minutes.

Derek Roy (Fantrax –29% owned) – Derek Roy is not really a depth option on the Oilers but he has made a major jump since moving from Nashville to Edmonton. It is probably too early to call him bizarro Ribeiro but it certainly seems to going that way. Roy's production has almost doubled from .4 points per game in Nashville to .7 points per game in Edmonton. Part of this can be attributed to going from playing with Olli Jokinen and Matt Cullen to playing with two of Benoit Pouliot, Nail Yakupov and Teddy Purcell

 

 

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