According to ESPN, various locations around North America have contacted the NHL regarding hosting neutral-site games, should the 2019-20 NHL season resume. The reported locations include Grand Forks, North Dakota; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. These games would likely be held in empty arenas. At this stage, we would simply need to consider this to be an idea.

*

If the NHL is able to return to action and jumps straight to the playoffs with the usual 16 teams, which method would you prefer it uses to decide playoff teams? Three methods that have been discussed include total points as is, winning percentage, and capping the season at 68 games (the minimum number of games that each team has played).

To me, the best choice here is winning percentage. I can't buy using total points as is (which some on social media have used for their "what if" playoff series predictions) because teams can't be penalized for games they could not play. On the same token, games played after 68 should not hold less value than the first 68, particularly since those games would have mattered to many of the teams playing them. I don't know how this will be resolved, and if it is, some fanbase will feel slighted. But that's where we are now.

*

If this is in fact the end of the season (and by that, I mean the regular season), only four players will have hit the 100-penalty minute mark.

However, six more players were on pace to reach 100 penalty minutes over a full season (Nazem Kadri was injured at the time the season was paused, but may have been close to a return).

Let's compare the 2019-20 season leaders to those of the previous two seasons. In 2018-19, six players reached 100+ PIM. Evander Kane was the runaway leader, although he surprisingly took only three major (five-minute) penalties. Kane also led in minor penalties with 37. If the regular season ends, Kane will be the back-to-back penalty minute leader.

In 2017-18, seven players reached 100+ PIM. Micheal Haley, that season's penalty minutes leader, is the last player to reach 200 penalty minutes. He and Tom Wilson were miles ahead of the rest of the league. The number of players with over 100 penalty minutes hasn't changed much, but the total for the league leader has.

Just for fun, let's compare the last three seasons to the 2007-08 season PIM leaders.

Or the 1980-81 season. Over time, penalty minutes have declined as the game has changed.

If you're bored (which I know you will be at some point), go check out some hockey games from the 1970s or 1980s. With lots of goals and fights, these games did not lack for entertainment. I've been a hockey fan since I was very young, but I honestly became bored with the game during the dead puck era. That's why with my recent downtime, my preference has been to watch games from the earlier era.

Will this trend toward lower penalty minutes continue?

NHL teams are more focused on winning on speed and skill than ever before. The days of players racking up 300+ PIM, as was the case during the 1970s and 1980s, are gone. However, teams also understand that toughness is a critical element to winning the Stanley Cup. Two bruising teams (the Blues and Bruins) met in last year's Stanley Cup Final, while Tom Wilson's presence impacted the Capitals in 2018. The prototypical goon might be close to extinct, but players like Wilson will come at a premium because of how secure teammates will feel while they are on the ice.

Consider the number of major penalties today compared to past seasons. In 2007-08, Jared Boll led the NHL with 28 major (5-minute) penalties, while six other players had at least 20 majors. Four of these players (including Boll and now-concussion advocate Daniel Carcillo) accumulated at least 200 PIM. That season, Carcillo led the league with 324 PIM.

This season, Nicolas Deslauriers led the league with 14 majors, while no other player had more than seven majors. Last season, no player had more than seven majors, which makes Deslauriers' major penalty total seem like an anomaly. Not all major penalties are assessed for fighting, but as long as fighting is on the decline, the same will happen to total penalty minutes.

What does that mean for fantasy leagues that count PIM?

Grab onto penalty minute producers who can score. Kane, Brady Tkachuk (covered here), and Tom Wilson are must-owns in these leagues. This matters more in leagues in leagues where you compete directly with other teams in this category, such as weekly head-to-head leagues that award wins for each category, or multicategory roto leagues which rank teams in each category over the season.

As for pure points leagues that assign a value for each category, this doesn't matter as much as long as the points come from somewhere. A team could pile up a ton of goals and assists each week but not many penalty minutes and still come out on top. In that case, penalty minutes are basically a throwaway category, especially if they don't add much to the bottom line.

Of the 100 PIM crowd (or at least within reach of 100 PIM), Kane is probably the player with the highest value at the moment, given his ability to also score goals (at least 20 in each of the last five seasons) and take shots (at least 200 over each of the last five seasons). However, I could see the younger Tkachuk eclipsing him in fantasy value over the next season or two. As I mentioned last week, the sky's the limit for Tkachuk in bangers leagues.

Today's penalty minute leaders could just as well be scorers as not. Of the top 10 PIM producers in 2019-20, three were on pace to record 40 points, with another (Kadri) on pace to reach that mark. In 2007-08, none of the top eight PIM producers recorded more than 24 points.* The non-scoring, pure penalty minute producers that were prevalent over a decade ago are now more rare, but they are usually not worth seeking out unless a) you are in a very deep league, or b) the player is a short-term add to boost that category.

*As it turned out, Dion Phaneuf's one 60-point season also came that season, when he was also ninth in penalty minutes. What a monster year that would have been for him in bangers leagues.

***

Since there isn't a ton happening in the hockey world right now, feel free to leave any questions or comments, and I may discuss them in a future Ramblings. For more fantasy hockey information, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.