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Cage Match – Zach Bogosian vs. Erik Johnson

The trend with the recent Cage Match articles is about giving the people what they want so by request we will get our bust on this week looking at Zach Bogosian and Erik Johnson. Now you might argue that the bust label is unfair so allow me to qualify. It’s completely unfair to label a guy who skates over 20 minutes a night for his team a bust, regardless of his draft position but from a fantasy perspective well that gets a bit more reasonable. When a defenseman gets drafted that high we assume he has some offensive acumen and we hope he’s going to be the next Chris Pronger. The problem is that there’s only one Chris Pronger and even with him the dividends were slow to arrive.  So even when considering fantasy hockey you have to be really careful when applying that bust label to a defenseman because they can take forever to develop.

Laidlaw's latest cage match - PK Subban vs. Kris Letang

I have been waiting for months, nay years, to spring a Kris Letang vs. Erik Karlsson Cage Match. It feels like it should be a compelling matchup. The problem is every chance Letang gets to sneak ahead he goes and gets hurt. He’s now officially on Dobber’s Band-Aid Boy list. Injuries are always going to be a problem with him – there’s just no avoiding that now. So as much as I would love to spout on about how Letang could be a better bet than Karlsson in a fantasy league I can’t because he can’t stay healthy long enough for that to be a reasonable possibility. And yes Karlsson is out with that gross Achilles slicing incident, which caused us to demote him from god-status to demi-god, but the freak of nature may actually play on Thursday! He’s back up to god status – nothing can hold him back. It feels like it’s taken Karlsson less time to get back from this Achilles cut than it has for Letang to get back from his groin pull (and that’s only part hyperbole). Seriously, I would love to do this Cage Match, but Karlsson is in-human. We’ve got to find a better comparison.

Enter Pernell-Karl Subban.

After a brief Stamkos vs. Tavares discussion, Laidlaw looks at Eric Staal vs. Anze Kopitar

I recently asked for suggestions for my next Cage Match article. From the sounds of it you guys really, really, really want to see a Steven Stamkos vs. John Tavares matchup. Here’s the problem – it’s too damned simple. Seriously, the only acceptable answer is Stamkos. I get that Tavares has similarly great pedigree and is really starting to shine but to this point Stamkos has a far better track record of NHL production. Why go out on a limb?

This week's fantasy hockey cage match: Anisimov vs. Matthias.

Post-hype sleeper is a term you don’t hear often in fantasy hockey (it’s more of a fantasy baseball term) but I feel like it’s a term every poolie should get acquainted with regardless of his fantasy sport of choice. The reason is that the post-hype sleeper is quite possibly the best bang for your buck you can find. For instance, if you were patient or savvy enough to acquire any of Sam Gagner, Nazem Kadri or Jakub Voracek you’d have landed yourself a player far exceeding his projections and his draft slot if only because some of the shine had worn off because of exposure. These guys pop up every year though – after disappointing us for years they finally “get it” and produce. Joffrey Lupul and Blake Wheeler were two fine examples from last year and if you still aren’t convinced that the post-hype sleeper is a real thing well then I guess you can just keep on hitting the snooze button. This week’s Cage Match features two such post-hype sleepers, Artem Anisimov vs. Shawn Matthias.

This week's Cage Match investigates the fantasy value of... Parise vs. Ovechkin

Lists make for great internet reading. They are usually tightly structured and easy to follow. Bleacher Report has built and entire website around the concept of lists. My favourite lists have to be Jeff Angus’ annual Top 10’s. If you aren’t reading those then you are missing out. As much as I love reading lists, I hate writing them because it’s way too easy for dinks (like me) with a keyboard and a modem to read a list and start poking holes. For instance, in Angus’ Top 10 Left Wingers piece he ranked Zach Parise ahead of Alexander Ovechkin. My head nearly exploded.

Rookie Tournament results - best fantasy value - Galchenyuk vs. Yakupov, Huberdeau vs. Tarasenko

So it’s here. The final matchup of the Cage Match Rookie Tournament is finally upon us. Only two remain. Are they the best rookies? That’s debatable but according to you as of right now they are. Only time will tell the rest as we push forward there is still another half of a half-season (which is normally a quarter but not this year) to be played so there is still time for these rookies to make an early impact and to change their narrative. Of course, for the purposes of this tournament time has run out for 14 competitors. Let’s see who remains:

Yakupov, Galchenyuk, Huberdeau and Tarasenko move onto the semi-finals

The quarterfinals of the Cage Match Rookie Tournament were supposed to up the ante and bring some really tight matchups. It didn’t necessarily work out that way but it was nevertheless a huge success as reader voting has never been higher. You guys have opinions on this stuff and you want to make them heard so who am I to argue. Here are the blowout results:

Granlund vs. Galchenyuk, Huberdeau vs. Conacher - and more in the Cage Match Rookie Tournament

It is now Week 3 of the Cage Match Rookie Tournament and we are already off to the second round. Things are moving fast up in here! Week Two brought a lot more excitement to the table than Week One, likely because the Ovechkin Bracket was the deeper of the two brackets. Let’s see what went down.