Welcome to Week Two of the Cage Match Rookie Tournament. Week One saw the opening round matchups in the Selanne Bracket. Why the Selanne Bracket you might ask? That’s why. There were few surprises in Week One, as all of the top seeds made it through to the next round. Here’s how they got there.
Steve Laidlaw takes a look at the NHL's best rookies.
During the lockout I’d hatched this fantastic scheme – if the season were to be cancelled I would put together the first ever Cage Match Prospects Tournament. There were a ton of fantastic prospects tearing apart their respective leagues. Following a strong 2012 draft class as well as several of the best international prospects having waited a few years before coming to North America there was an absolute glut of talent waiting to break into the league. That tournament would have been bananas but instead we have to suffer through this shortened NHL season and one of the best rookie classes in memory. Thanks a lot, Bettman.
So in lieu of the first ever Cage Match Prospects Tournament and in celebration of this fantastic rookie class we shall instead have the first ever Cage Match Rookie Tournament. For simplicity’s sake and because of my bias towards defensemen (I really hate those fickle bastards) the field has been limited to just forwards. Now before you go and cry yourself to sleep in your Justin Schultz jersey I have to acknowledge that Schultz is my personal favourite to win the Calder this year, which is all the more reason to lock him out of the cage – that’s right, another lockout, suck it defensemen.
Things are heating up in the polls as we close in on deciding who the best fantasy player is - only 12 left standing...
Apparently there are a ton of fun things you can do with chalk. One thing that isn’t much fun is going chalk in a bracket tournament. In that regard you guys are total bores (at least this round anyway). After the previous round of polls yielded two upsets you guys decided to go straight chalk in the first half of the Sweet Sixteen. I am not complaining though, I just love the irony that a “fantasy” game could yield such unimaginative results.
Oh boy, what an opening round! After four weeks of voting in the Cage Match Tournament we have now pared the field down from 36 to 16. That’s right folks, we’re over halfway there. This past week was quite possibly the most exciting yet. We upped our output to keep up with you fantasy hockey fiends, releasing not one but two polls per week. Not only that but the matchups themselves got super interesting. Over the past couple of days you voted on the first round matchups of the final bracket and it was absolute fireworks.
The Cage Match Tournament keeps on rolling. To keep up with demand, we are picking up the pace and releasing two articles per week. That means the polls are closing faster but it also means speedier results. This is good news for those of you following along.
Welcome to the third week of the Cage Match Tournament! In case you missed them, here are the previous week’s editions:
Week 1 – Introducing the Bracket
Week 2 – Howe Bracket: Round One
Week 3 – Richard Bracket: Round One
Welcome to the third week of the Cage Match Tournament! In case you missed them, here are the previous week’s editions:
Week 1 – Introducing the Bracket
Week 2 – Round One: Howe Bracket
Hopefully you tuned in last week as we introduced to you the first annual Cage Match Tournament – a contest pitting players up against each other head-to-head in a points only keeper league where you the reader gets to vote and decide who wins!
The most daunting question in the world of fantasy hockey is: who is the best player in fantasy hockey?
This would have made for a great Cage Match except there is no consensus top two to pit against each other. I am not sure there is even a consensus top four. The field is wide open. The league is booming with young talent and the combination of injuries and parity has the effect of evening out the playing field. To single out just two players would be silly so to do it up right would call for a Royal Rumble of a Cage Match. That would simply be madness. There is only one solution: harness the madness.
With that in mind I am proud to introduce to you the inaugural Cage Match Tournament!
PA Parenteau vs. Matt Moulson - Draft position is one of the greatest deceivers in fantasy sports. It is a nice guideline (particularly in and around draft time) but the farther away you get from the NHL draft the less that draft position means. That is because the draft provides only a snap shot in time of the perceived value of all the drafted players. You think it matters any more that Datsyuk was a sixth round pick? That Zetterberg was a seventh? It most certainly does not.
