The start of the 2010-2011 NHL season is well and truly underway. There have been a few pleasant surprises, as well as few “red alert” moments involving key injuries. The main thing that you need to keep in mind is that the season is still young and there’s still seven months of quality hockey remaining. Similar to last season, I’ll provide you with weekly updates so that you have access to the latest news that’s been happening from the Western Conference front.
Every year there seems to be a few players that come out of nowhere to magically to give you a surprising boost, (Henrik Sedin, Ilya Bryzgalov, Craig Anderson, Jimmy Howard, or Tom Gilbert last season), or one that you ranked so highly but ended up destroying your season because you invested so highly on them, (Steve Mason, Bobby Ryan, or Evgeni Malkin). With two days before the first puck drops in the 2010-11 season, hopefully I can provide you with a last-minute look of some players out West who will either make or break your fantasy season.
A look at hits and blocked shots
I spent the weekend planning for my favourite league to play in, which is my very competitive friends’ league. After finishing in second place in consecutive years, I thought I’d be pulling a Marian Hossa and be earmarked for a championship. Surely the fantasy hockey gods would be smiling down on me considering two very close and heartbreaking 8-6 and 8-4 losses for the last two campaigns. After coming out pretty happy in my last few drafts, I was pretty confident heading into this one.
Boy was I disappointed.
Over the course of the last few weekends, I participated in a few, (about 35), Yahoo! mock drafts to gain a better grasp of what’s been going on in the real fantasy hockey world and thought that I’d pass my findings onto you Dobberities. I participated in random drafts ranging from eight to 14 teams from H2H to Roto leagues with standard settings. Last week I covered players that seem to be overvalued and overreached at the draft table, this week we’ll take a look at the opposite.
Over the course of the last few weekends, I participated in a few, (about 30), Yahoo! mock drafts to gain a better grasp of what’s been going on in the real fantasy hockey world and thought that I’d pass my findings onto you Dobberities. I participated in random drafts ranging from eight to 14 teams from H2H to Roto leagues with standard settings. This is what I have concluded.
Once again, much like last year, here’s a list of players who just won’t tickle my fancy. There are a variety of reasons ranging from my dislike of some players, changes to the team during the off-season, recovery from off-season surgery, overvalued rookies/prospects, or just plain over-inflated stats from last season.
Following the same footsteps as last year, here’s a list of some of the Western Conference underachieving veterans from last season. Many of them underachieved or were simply injured which resulted in them churning out horrible overall numbers for 2009-10. Those low numbers could lead them to be undervalued, so make sure you make a mental note of these players and don’t fall into the trap of undervaluing them like some of your competitors might on draft day.
Finishing off the series started a few weeks ago on the breakdown of each Eastern Conference team. For the final week we’ll take a deeper look into the Lightning, Leafs and Capitals.
Russ is on hiatus for the summer, but don't you worry. I'll be filling in for him, so you Dobberities won’t miss out on the Eastern Conference side of the coin for your fantasy leagues in this column series.
Continuing the series started a few weeks ago on the breakdown of each Western Conference team. For the final week we’ll take a deeper look into the Sharks, Blues, and Canucks.
