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Roos looks at six players who are defying time

Just say no... to these seven players on new teams...

Roos takes a look at the fantasy value of bought-out players

Over the next few weeks a lot of attention will be paid to the high profile signings, trades, and draft picks that teams make. And rightfully so – they’ll all have a huge impact on fantasy hockey leagues now and down the road. But you need to make sure not to overlook the compliance buyouts that will occur as well (the deadline for 2013 is July 4th), and the effect they’ll also have on fantasy hockey.

Taking a look at some point totals that are somewhat deceiving

Even if you look closely at a group of players who all scored roughly the same number of points in a season, chances are each guy could’ve had a somewhat different overall impact on your team. Of course the key is finding the best guy among a group of apparently similar players, as that can often makes the difference between winning and losing in fantasy hockey.

With that in mind, I’ll look at several groups of players who had similar point totals in 2012-13, to see if there were any standouts (good or bad) once you dig a little bit deeper beyond just how many points they scored. I’ll highlight some interesting trends within my discussion of each group, and finish with some key overall takeaways in my Final Verdict.

Roos takes a funny look at what Google's Instant Search offers when you type certain player names... 

It’s hard to believe that Google Instant Search has been around for almost three years. For those who don’t know what Instant Search is (or might not realize they do), the way it works is when you type something in a Google search box it auto-completes the search as you type, predicting what you’re searching for based on the most popular searches that have been run which match what you’ve typed so far. Since it debuted, Instant Search has been used as a source for humor almost as much as for information. I figured I’d try to mix a little bit of both with this week’s column by using Google Instant Search to have some fun, but also to see if it could somehow be turned into a useful tool for fantasy hockey enthusiasts.

These eight players are good...but not worth the cost

In last week’s column, I highlighted eight players who aren’t as bad as they might seem. This week I figured I’d shift my focus to the other end of the spectrum – eight guys who are good, but not worth the cost it would likely take to obtain them via trade or in a draft for the 2013-14 season. In other words, any of these eight guys could be a very nice addition to your fantasy team in 2013-14, but you still might be best to avoid obtaining them because you’ll likely have to pay too much of an inflated price.

Eight players who are thought to be busts...but really aren't

One of the biggest traps that Fantasy Hockey GMs can fall into is overvaluing players, either by paying too high a price to draft or trade for them, or by holding onto them even after it becomes clear they’re not worthy of still being owned. But it’s arguably just as bad to mislabel a player as a bust when he could still turn things around, or to ignore a player whose performance seems to have fallen off but who still could help your team despite maybe having lost a step.

 Roos investigates players who will disappoint ... or improve in the West next season

Welcome to Part 2 of my series about non-playoff teams, focusing on two players from each team – one who I think is a good bet to improve next season, and another who I feel will disappoint. In last week’s column I tackled the Eastern Conference, so this week it’s time for the West. For my “Final Verdict”, I’ll again go over some keys to identifying guys like these, plus talk about how this really all boils down to value versus expectations.

Roos takes a look at non-playoff teams and gives suggestions on which players will improve and who will disappoint in 2013-14. First up - the Eastern Conference

This time of year, most fantasy hockey enthusiasts are either closely following their guys in the playoffs or taking a break until free agent signings begin during the summer. The problem is that both approaches ignore the players on the 14 teams which didn’t make the NHL playoffs, and risks an “out of sight, out of mind” situation where you won’t be able to remember enough about these players when the time comes for retentions or offseason deals.

Here is the first of a two-part column about players on non-playoffs teams (this week covering the Eastern Conference teams, next week the Western Conference), focusing on two players from each team – one who I think is a good bet to improve next season, and another who I feel will disappoint.