Looking ahead at the best and worst schedules in the league over the next week.

Experienced or not, every fantasy hockey enthusiast is biased toward certain players. Certain guys end up on certain poolies' rosters year in and year out. It's important to recognize when you hold a certain player in higher regard than others do. With that being said, it's confession time. Here are the five guys I can't help but target in drafts or try to acquire via trade…

David Backes, C/RW, St. Louis – I've owned Inglorious Backes in at least one multi-category league every season since the 2008-09 campaign. Afterthe first few rounds of a draft are complete, I tend to target the longtime St. Louis Blue because of his ability to provide hits, blocks and penalty minutes while still finding a way to provide at least adequate offensive production. Backes has eclipsed 20 goals, 30 assists and 60 penalty minutes every season since 2009-10. He'll never be an elite fantasy option, but Backes has been an above-average one for a long, long time. That's a comforting thought to any owner trying to build a championship-caliber squad.

Mikko Koivu, C, Minnesota – Yes, his best days are behind him. The Minnesota Wild captain was a scrumtrulescent fantasy centerman from 2008-2011, but nagging injuries ever since have prevented Koivu from breaking the 55-point barrier again. I still love him in leagues where faceoffs won are a category (he has 784 through 63 games this season), and improvements to his surrounding cast allowed him to stave off a significant decline in production as he entered his thirties. Saku's younger brother has always been better in real life than in fantasy, but that fact hasn't stopped me from targeting and acquiring him in my leagues most years. 

Evander Kane, LW, Buffalo – I'd just like to point out Kane scored 30 goals… for a middling Winnipeg Jets squad… in his age-20 season. I owned him in a multi-cat league that season, and it was an absolute blast. So it's been alarming to see the former fourth overall selection in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft struggle (and ultimately fail) to match that level of production ever since. That being said, it's difficult to imagine a so-called top-six power forward perform at a high level when his shooting percentage has hovered between 7.5 percent and 8 percent over his last 100 games in the NHL. Now Kane's a Buffalo Sabre and is out for the remainder of the 2014-15 campaign while he recovers from shoulder surgery. Will all of this prevent yours truly from drafting him again this coming fall? Probably not…

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D, Arizona – At just 23 years of age, this Arizona Coyotes defenseman already has three double-digit-goal seasons on his resume. Oh, and he's still getting better. Ekman-Larsson has seen his shot attempts, shooting percentage and go up since the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign.

He's somewhere between a 40-point defenseman and a 50-point defenseman at this point in his career, leaving him just shy of elite status. I love taking him as a slightly more cost-effective option than fellow blueliners like Nashville's Shea Weber and Chicago's Duncan Keith. Don't penalize him too much for being the best player on a rebuilding Arizona squad that currently lacks impact talent on both ends of the ice. I sure don't.

Brian Elliott, G, St. Louis – The former Wisconsin Badger has been an above-average goaltender for the vast majority of his time in St. Louis (save for 24 appearances during the abbreviated 2012-13 season, one which he registered an underwhelming .907 save percentage). It seems like every year Elliott is overlooked as a quality fantasy goaltender. It's probably because he always finds himself in a timeshare (usually with another goaltender he out-produces). Elliott hasn't seen 50-plus starts since 2010-11, and that was a season where he posted a goals-against average of 3.34 and a save percentage of .893. But has he not been the perfect No. 2 fantasy goaltender since he joined St. Louis?

If only he would play more…

Now let's take a look ahead at some teams to lean on or avoid in the coming week or so: