Hello and welcome back to Geek of the Week! In this week's article, I am going to examine one key stat of penalty minutes (PIM). I'm going to review the top PIM leaders so far and where these PIM are coming from. I'll explain which types of PIM are best and which players to target for each one. This article will assume PIM are counted as a positive statistic in your leagues.

The statistics mentioned do not include Sunday's games.

Type of PIM

There are three types of penalties to accumulate PIM: Minors – getting 2 PIM per penalty, Majors – getting 5 PIM per penalty, and Misconducts – getting 10 PIM per penalty. Misconducts are obviously much better as they get you more PIM, yet they are much more variable. If a player gets most of his PIM from misconduct, he'll likely have some weeks where he crushes the category for you and some weeks where he puts up a goose egg.

Misconducts should not necessarily be counted on for multicat leagues. Points leagues are another story. If you have a player that is rosterable aside from his PIM, if he can get a misconduct here and there to really boost your points, that would be added value. Players like this might include Brady Tkachuk, Matthew Tkachuk, and Sam Bennett.

In category leagues, I would target the PIM leaders that get a majority of their PIM from minor infractions as they would provide consistent PIM value week in, week out. Obviously if they fight to get some majors and have a history of misconducts, this is a boost, but minors should be the main PIM category of interest for weekly head-to-head multicat leagues. This argument is more for players that would be rostered in most category leagues. If you are strictly streaming PIM, definitely target those majors and misconducts. I'll review a couple players that can either be consistently counted on for PIM week in and week out due to their tendency to take minor penalties, or have been more boom-or-bust in the PIM category. I'll also touch on a few streamer options that can make or break your category with a stream.

Charlie McAvoy

McAvoy has disappointed fantasy managers so far this season, picking up just 20 points in 45 games this season. Most managers drafted him for his peripheral coverage as a great floor. Although he still provides category coverage in Hits and BLK, these have taken a slight dip this season compared to last. At least his PIM rate has remained high, averaging right around 1 PIM per game.

This has come entirely from minor penalties, with ZERO majors or misconducts. That is a great sign for week-in-week-out consistency in the category. McAvoy has a slight history of majors and misconducts with four majors and one misconduct in the past three seasons. If he gets 1-2 majors the rest of the way, it will be a nice boost and he should finish with a career high in PIM. If he doesn't, he will provide consistency category coverage with his minor infractions.

Timo Meier

Meier is having a career year in PIM. He's hovered around 0.5 PIM per game in seasons past, but this year he's upped that to 1.14 PIM per game. This has been a nice boost for fantasy managers. However, 32 of his 50 PIM came in two games, where he had both of his majors and misconducts. In these weeks he definitely crushed your PIM category, but in others he hasn't done much. Meier has never had more than one fight in a season. Already having two, it is unlikely he drops the gloves again this season. If we take away those two games, Meier has averaged 0.43 PIM per game. This is what I would expect moving forward. If he does get another major or misconduct, it will only be in one fantasy week. If you know a manager who needs help in PIM, try to sell high on Meier knowing his PIM is unsustainable.

Streamers

Here I'll just highlight some players that are worth a stream to pad your PIM category with a major or misconduct if they get into the lineup. Most of these guys don't play many games. When they do get into the lineup, their job is to be the tough guy, resulting in a likelihood of grabbing 5-17 PIM in a game. When streaming these guys, you'll want to take a look at their opponent and see if there is a good matchup for a fight. If the opponent's fourth line is made up of young talented guys who don't fight, it won't be a good stream. You also want to see if there is history. For instance, Rempe got a suspension for a dirty hit on the Stars' Miro Heiskanen. If the Stars had a game coming up against the Rangers, it is more likely for Rempe to drop the gloves to "answer" for this. Unfortunately, the Stars and Rangers don't play again this season.

Matt Rempe – Speaking of Rempe, he has played seven games so far and dropped the gloves in two of them (one of them coming with the misconduct and suspension). Last season, he picked up a major or misconduct in 7 of his 17 games played. He is a worthy stream for a boost in PIM if he's in the lineup.

Jeffrey Viel – Viel only played one game this season for the Bruins so far, where he got into a fight. He has 87 PIM in 34 games in the AHL. If he gets a call up and slotted into the lineup, he knows his job.

Liam O'Brien – O'Brien has played in 10 games this season and has picked up a major or misconduct in two of them. He provides plenty of hits as well.

Matt Stienburg – The Colorado prospect had an eight-game stint to start the season. He picked up a major and/or misconduct in two of those games. If he gets a callup, he's worthy of a PIM stream.

Kurtis MacDermid – MacDermid, a likely opponent to a Rempe fight, has three majors in his 16 games played.

Hope you enjoyed! Follow me on X @fantasycheddar, where I will answer any questions you may have.