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. 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 players to target for each one. This article will assume PIM are counted as a positive stat 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. The top PIM leader, Brady Tkachuk has gotten three misconducts this season. These weeks that the misconducts come are killer for the PIM category, but this has only occurred in three fantasy weeks.

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 Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, or Travis Konecny.

In category leagues, I would target the PIM leaders that get a lot of minors 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. I'll review three players that can either be consistently counted on for PIM week in, week out, due to their tendency to take minor penalties, or have been more boom-or-bust in the PIM category. I won't be reviewing the obvious PIM leaders like Tkachuk or Tom Wilson.

Mason McTavish

McTavish has not had one major or misconduct, but is fifth in the league in minor penalties. This has resulted in his highest PIM/60 numbers of his career. This along with increased overall ice time makes him easily counted on for some PIM week-in, week out. McTavish is having a great year offensively, and his PIM is a great boost for your multicat leagues. He is only 54% owned and is trusted in a much bigger role this season for the Ducks. This is resulting in consistent minor penalties for the young star.

Zach Hyman

Hyman has never been a big PIM guy, but he is taking more penalties this year than he ever has. These are all minor penalties, resulting in consistency week in-week out. Hyman is likely rostered in your league, but because he is not getting majors or misconducts, his PIM are likely under-the-radar. If you were to trade for Hyman, you not only can expect elite offensive production on the offensive juggernaut that is the Oilers, but you can expect consistent minor penalties padding your PIM category.

Tanner Jeannot

Jeannot is someone who is rostered due to his tendency to bang. He hits like a beast and gets in quite a few fights. These fights have resulted in him being fifth in the league in PIM. For multicat weekly leagues, this isn't as valuable as it seems. His PIM are more boom-or-bust. He doesn't get a lot of minor penalties; instead, it is the majors that pad his PIM stats. In five fantasy weeks, he has probably secured you the win in PIM, but in all the others, he hasn't done much to help in that category. Jeannot is a great asset for multicat leagues with his hits and PIM, but his PIM are likely overvalued, due to the inconsistency.

Honourable Mentions (Consistency) – High number of Minors

Brad Marchand, Frank Vatrano, Vincent Trocheck, Evgeni Malkin, Blake Coleman

Honourable Mentions (Inconsistency) – High PIM from Majors and Misconducts

Liam O'Brien, Nick Seelar, Garnet Hathaway, Brenden Dillon, Erik Gudbranson

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