As we get into the push for the fantasy playoffs (or the start of the playoffs, depending on your league), many of us are stuck with tough decisions when deciding on our roster.

This past Saturday was the perfect example. With 15 games on the slate, many of us were forced in benching players we may not have wanted to. It doesn’t get any easier this week, with 12 games on Tuesday, 11 on Thursday and 13 on Saturday.

Oftentimes, when faced with a difficult choice between two pretty even players, we may simply choose the one who is playing at home. That’s because playing at home is usually an advantage, but there are numerous players who produce better on the road.

For an exercise like this, you can’t simply look at the road stats. The top players for points on the road are Connor McDavid, Tage Thompson, Leon Draisaitl, David Pastrnak and Mitchell Marner, but they’ve also been awesome at home.

You also can’t simply look at the difference between home and away points. Sebastien Aho, for example, has 22 points in 29 home games, but 33 in 29 road games. That difference of 11 points in one of the largest in the NHL, however, unless you’re in the shallowest of fantasy leagues, you’re not going to leave him on your bench.

The best way is to use Dobber’s Report Generator, where you can create a report that sorts players by home and away stats. Downloading those stats into an excel file, you can calculate the points-per-home-game and the points-per-road-game for each player, and use those two numbers to figure out the difference in the per-game stats for every player. Sorting by the difference would give you an idea of who has been much better at home and away.

Before we get to the list, just a few interesting statistics:

• Although they won’t make this list, Liam Foudy and Karson Kuhlman share the distinction of most road points (seven) without a single home point.
• The Ducks have already played 37 road games this year, which leads the league, and only have four remaining.
• On the flip side, Colorado and Columbus have played 30 road games, the fewest, which means they each still need to play 11 road games.

Below are 10 players who have been much better on the road than at home this year.

10. Christian Dvorak

It’s been a frustrating season for any fantasy general manager who has Dvorak on his roster as the Montreal Canadien has seen a decrease in ice time, power-play time, shots-per-game, points-per-game, hits and PIM. He’s also missed the last two games but it doesn’t sound serious enough to keep him out of the lineup for long. Dvorak has nine points in 31 home games but 19 in 33 away from Montreal. After Monday’s game at home against Colorado, Montreal goes on the road for six of their next eight contests.

9. J.J. Moser

Moser is someone you have rostered in deeper leagues, and it’s really only for the points. In 66 games (not including Sunday night), he’s a minus-12, with 31 PM, 67 shots, 62 hits and 100 blocked shots. He’s also spent time on and off the top power-play unit (right now, he’s off), but he does have nine man-advantage points. However, he also has only 25 points overall. Eight of those points have come at home, whereas 17 have come in 36 road games. The only bad thing about Moser is that Arizona has only five road games left of their remaining 16 games, so it’s probably a smarter play to drop him for a better option.

8. David Perron

Perron hasn’t been as productive this season as in previous campaigns, but that can probably be chalked up to playing his first season in Detroit. Maybe it’s just getting used to a different system, different linemates, a different city. Maybe if he was better at home, we wouldn’t notice his production drop as much. He has 16 points in 33 home games but 25 in 33 on the road. On the bright side, he does have 18 power-play points (as a strange statistic, Dylan Larkin has picked up a point on all 18 of Perron’s power-play points).

7. Jake DeBrusk

Due to various ailments this season, DeBrusk has been limited to 47 games. Overall, he has 39 points, a 68-point pace. He has 19 points in 27 home games and 20 points in 20 road games. He is a staple on the top line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron and can also be found on the top power-play unit. He’s already set career highs in power-play points and should get there in points, plus/minus, shots and hits.

6. Alex Wennberg

Wennberg has never lived up to his potential and is now a consistent 40-point player. That means he’s only rostered in deeper leagues, but he has a clear penchant for scoring on the road. Of Wennberg’s 33 points, nine of them have come at home, with the other 24 coming away from Seattle. Six of his seven power-play points have also come on the road. Wennberg has posted 0.27 points per game at home, and 0.73 on the road. The 0.46 difference is the highest among all players heading into Sunday’s action.

5. Neal Pionk

Pionk is great in leagues with peripherals, so you may have to keep him in your lineup for both home and away games depending on your league setting. There is a significant discrepancy between the two when it comes to points. In 34 home games, Pionk has zero goals and only six points. In 33 road games, he has eight goals and 20 points. That’s a significant difference. Six of Winnipeg’s next eight games are on the road, and depending on the severity of Josh Morrissey‘s injury, Pionk may be the number one power-play QB for a good chunk of them.

4. Conor Garland

When Vancouver made that big trade a couple of years ago to acquire Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Garland was the one most fantasy GMs were excited about having on their roster. After putting up a 65-point pace with the Coyotes, the hope was he could slide into a top-six role with the Canucks and potentially flirt with 70. That hasn’t happened, and his numbers have dropped in almost every statistical category that can be counted in fantasy leagues. At home, Garland has 12 points in 33 games, which equates to an 82-game pace of 30 points. On the road, he has 23 points in 31 games, which equals an 82-game pace of 59 points. The aforementioned OEL could also be an honorable player for this list, as he has five points in 26 home games but 17 in 28 road games.

3. Dylan Strome

Strome has been producing almost exactly what fantasy general managers could have hoped for this season, becoming a first-/second-line tweener in the centre position and flirting with 60 points. As centre is often the easiest position to fill in fantasy hockey, he may be the man being benched on many busy fantasy nights, which makes sense when he is playing at home. On the road, he’s almost a must-start. He has 18 points in 31 home games and 29 points in 35 home games.

2. Evan Bouchard

Six of Bouchard’s 27 points have come from home games, while 21 have come on the road. Most of that came from earlier in the season, when Bouchard was still behind Tyson Barrie in the pecking order, both at even strength and on the power play. It’s been only six games since Barrie was traded to Nashville, and Bouchard has continued his home/away stats. He was pointless in his first two games after the trade, both at home, but has six points in four games since, all on the road. The Oilers play five of their next six games at home, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next two weeks.

1. Dawson Mercer

There’s been no sophomore jinx for Mercer, who has broken out in his second season and is on pace for 61 points. More importantly, he’s been contributing no matter who is on his line. His best linemates at even strength are Tomas Tatar, Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier. He’s on the second power-play unit, where he has nine power-play points. At home, he has 18 points in 33 games, but on the road, he has an amazing 31 points in 33 games. He has also taken 22 more shots on the road compared to at home (77 shots on the road compared to 55 at home). Mercer’s 12-game point streak (where he had 20 points) was snapped on Sunday night, most apropos, at home. The Devils have scored 3.21 goals at home and 3.85 on the road, so while Mercer is not the only Devil whose road stats are that much better, he has the widest range.