Hello and welcome back to Geek of the Week! After writing quite a few articles commenting on the decreases in hits this season, we were left wondering whether gameplay has changed and people are hitting less, or if the counting of this stat has changed. Last week, the NHL decided to conduct a third-party audit on this statistic and found that hits were indeed being undercounted this season. They retroactively updated players' hits stats on the season, which is now reflected on NHL.com and on Frozen Tools.

This undercounting could have had huge implications on our fantasy hockey leagues, especially multicategory leagues. I'm sure there are plenty of fantasy managers who have lost the hits category by one. There are also likely many in points leagues who have lost their week by a less than a fantasy point, where one extra hit could have made a difference. Unfortunately, stat corrections cannot be applied to weeks that have concluded on most platforms.

This audit does however have implications for our fantasy leagues moving forward as the audit will be ongoing throughout the rest of the season, ensuring hits are counted properly. So what can we expect from the big hitters moving forward? I'm going to review who has benefitted the most from this audit and give some expectations for the rest of the season.

The hit stats provided are per-game averages and only include up to the audit date of February 7.

Jeremy Lauzon – 3.92 pre-audit, 4.5 post-audit

The NHL hits leader hasn't changed. If you own this banger, he should keep hitting for you at league-leading levels. It is worth noting that in the past month, he's averaging 5.36 hits per game (post-audit numbers).

Radko Gudas – 2.86 pre-audit, 3.54 post-audit

After writing about Gudas returning to his old self before the NHL audit, his extra hits in the audit further confirm that the butcher is back. His new updated season average is still lower than previous seasons, where he's averaged over 4 hits per game, but there are signs pointing to an increase of late. Over the past month, he has not had less than 3 hits in any of his 11 games. He is also averaging 4.9 per game in that span and a whopping 5.5 in his last 4 games. With him picking up 6 hits in the only game to date that included the ongoing audit, things are looking very good for Gudas.

Brady Tkachuk – 2.64 pre-audit, 3.11 post-audit

Tkachuk has arguably been a top 5 multicategory asset in the past few seasons due to his SOG and Hit category coverage. He averaged 3.41 hits per game two seasons ago and 2.95 last season. Brady is not an elite point producer, so seeing his hit numbers slightly drop this season to 2.64 per game had owners worried. As a Tkachuk owner myself, I wondered whether we would continue to see a trend of decreased hitting as he matures into a stronger overall hockey player. One wouldn't be faulted for thinking this seeing his per-game averages go from 3.41 to 2.95 to 2.64 this season. Well, these thoughts have been put to rest with the audit. Brady has not decreased his hitting from last season and can still be counted on for around 3 per game. With over 4 SOG per game and close to a point-per-game, he can still be considered in the top 5-10 for multicategory leagues.

Garnet Hathaway – 2.46 pre-audit, 3.32 post-audit

Hathaway was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the audit, jumping up to 4^th in the league in hits. He can now be counted on as a streamer for hits and should average over 3 per game moving forward.

Evander Kane did not see as big of a bump as other big hitters, going from 3.2 per game to 3.47 per game. Still an amazing amount of hits from the Oilers forward, but he did not benefit from the audit much.

Jani Hakanpaa also did not see such a rise in his numbers. He went from 2.5 per game up to 2.75 per game. I'd look elsewhere for hits streams now that there are plenty of defenseman above 3 hits per game.

As some fantasy managers may be frustrated at this huge season-long stat correction, it is only best for the NHL to get it right. As this audit will be ongoing throughout the season, hit numbers should greatly rise to previous season levels and we can rely far more on our big hitters to get 3-4 hits per game.

Hope you enjoyed! See you next week.

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