Geek of the Week – Kevin Bieksa
Terry Campkin
2014-10-05
The Geek explains why Kevin Bieksa has a tonne of upside in PIM leagues.
We've spent a lot of time in recent weeks reviewing draft strategies/outcomes and how Fantasy Hockey Geek can help you to maximize your value at the draft table. For my money, that's the biggest value that FHG provides but FHG is also very good for looking at steady veterans and finding those who may be undervalued amongst your peers. Today we will look at one such player: Kevin Bieksa.
At the age of 33 and with 9 years of NHL experience, Bieksa should be a fairly well known commodity in fantasy circles, which makes me wonder why he is currently being drafted 166th overall as the 94th defenceman in Yahoo! leagues, slightly ahead of Ryan Murray and well behind the likes of Nik Hjalmarsson and Marc-Edouard Vlassic. I can think of a few reasons why this may be: people may question his durability, people may be down on the Canucks in general and people also might question his consistency. All three of these are legitimate concerns. Look at Bieksa's point per game average since he became an NHL regular:
From the chart above, you can see that Bieksa's production has been quite sporadic, ranging from 0.3 to 0.6 points per game. Over the past two seasons he has averaged only .32 points per game.
Here's the thing though: even at 0.32 points per game Bieksa still has value. Let's take a look at what his value was last year in a Yahoo! standard league (G, A, +/-, PPP, SOG, PIM)
| Rank | Name | Pos | G | A | +/- | PIM | SOG | PPP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 82 | Brent Seabrook | D | 7 | 34 | 23 | 22 | 149 | 9 |
| 83 | Kevin Bieksa | D | 4 | 20 | -8 | 104 | 167 | 8 |
| 84 | Jakub Voracek | RW | 23 | 39 | 11 | 22 | 235 | 23 |
In a Yahoo! standard league, Bieksa was ranked as the 83rd most valuable player, right around a couple of players who are being drafted considerably higher than him.
So what makes Bieksa so valuable? The answer is easy: he racks up SOGs and PIMs at a rate that is very uncommon amongst defencemen. His 24 points last season are a disappointment to be sure, but he did offer some production and a good portion of what he provided came on the powerplay. The FHG math shows that his high end output in PIM and SOG make up for what he was lacking offensively. Essentially, FHG tells us here that vs. Seabrook, Bieksa’s additional 82PIMs and 18shots are approximately equal to the three goals and 14 assists that he is giving up.
Looking ahead to the coming season, I loaded the Dobber projections into FHG and Bieksa came out around the same area (87th most valuable). This makes sense, given that Dobber isn’t forecasting a major swing for Bieksa.
Related Posts
UPCOMING GAMES
| Sep 21 - 19:09 |
 BUF
| vs |
 PIT | |
| Sep 21 - 19:09 |
 DAL
| vs |
 STL | |
| Sep 21 - 20:09 |
 WPG
| vs |
 MIN
| |
Starting Goalies
Top Skater Views
UTA
MTL
Top Goalie Profile Views
| Players | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| BRANDON BUSSI |
 BOS | |
| THATCHER DEMKO |
 VAN | |
| CAM TALBOT |
 DET | |
| ILYA SOROKIN |
 NYI | |
| YAROSLAV ASKAROV |
 S.J
| |
LINE COMBOS
| Frequency |
 ARI Players
| |
|---|---|---|
| 25.8 | NICK SCHMALTZ ALEX KERFOOT CLAYTON KELLER | |
| 17.5 | DYLAN GUENTHER LAWSON CROUSE LOGAN COOLEY | |
| 17.2 | AKU RATY JACK MCBAIN MATIAS MACCELLI | |
DobberHockey Podcasts
Keeping Karlsson: How to Draft Well and Make Friends, with Dom Luszczyszyn
On this edition of the Keeping Karlsson Fantasy Hockey Podcast mega-show, Elan and Brian hold their annual general fantasy rankings meeting with the one and only Dom Luszczyszyn (of The Athletic of The New York Times), where we zero in on some of his projections that caught our eye the most. *** Ready to join […]
Keeping Karlsson: 2025 Calder Candidates with Victor Nuño
Elan is joined by The Fantasy Hockey Doctor Victor Nuño to discuss all of the potential Calder candidates for the upcoming season. Listen to Victor on both the Fantasy Hockey Life podcast and the Dobber Prospects Report. You can also read his work at EP Rinkside. — Ready to join more than 650 top fantasy […]
Fantasy Hockey Life: Washington Capitals
Victor and Jesse go it alone for the final of 32 fantasy team previews. We start with Washington Capitals pros Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Tom Wilson, Andrew Mangiapane, Sonny Milano, Aliaksei Protas, Hendrix Lapierre, Connor McMichael, Max Pacioretty, TJ Oshie, John Carlson, Jakob Chychrun, Rasmus Sandin, Alexander Alexeyev, Charlie Lindgren, and Logan Thompson. […]
Fantasy Hockey Life: Winnipeg Jets with Dave Minuk
Dave Minuk of illegalcurve.com joins the show to talk Winnipeg Jets. Victor and Jesse ask about Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Gabe Vilardi, Cole Perfetti, Vladislav Namestnikov, Mason Appleton, Brad Lambert, Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk, Dylan DeMelo, Ville Heinola, Connor Hellebuyck, Kaapo Kahkonen, and Eric Comrie. In-Goal Magazine’s Cat Silverman joins in our Cat’s Instincts segment […]
Fantasy Hockey Life: Vancouver Canucks with Patrick Johnston
Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Sun joins the show to talk Vancouver Canucks. Jesse and Victor as about the pros: JT Miller, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, Conor Garland, Daniel Sprong, Dakota Joshua, Nils Hoglander, Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Tyler Myers, Thatcher Demko, and Arturs Silovs. In-Goal Magazine’s Cat Silverman joins in our Cat’s […]