Rick Roos looks at the five biggest mistakes you can make at the trade deadline...
What’s really interesting – but often overlooked - about the trade deadline is how it can cause even smart fantasy hockey GMs to make easily avoidable errors or to exercise poor judgment. Knowing this, I’ve put together a list of the five biggest mistakes to avoid making during and after the trade deadline.
Taking a look at players 30-plus who stand a good chance of hitting career highs in 2013-14
The column from last week (about players who are under 30 but have already peaked) got excellent feedback, so I figured why not also focus on the flip side – players who will be age 30 or older at the start of next season but still will be candidates to achieve a new career high in points in 2013-14.
Roos goes out on a limb - and gives you six young players who have already peaked
It’s never easy to convince yourself to “get out on top”, mostly because it’s almost impossible to know things have peaked until it’s too late. It happens in real life with dating, stocks, trips to the casino, and has even been used as a humorous plotline on TV. And of course it happens in fantasy hockey too, where one of the hardest things to do is realize when a player’s point production has truly peaked, never to be exceeded again. After all, were any of you smart enough to trade Brian Gionta or Jonathan Cheechoo after the 2005-06 season? Probably not, since when one of your players achieves a career high in points while still young (Gionta was 27 at the time, Cheechoo was 25), the natural tendency is to believe it’s only the beginning of even better things to come, when in truth it can often be the beginning……..of the end.
Investigating the success rate of big players versus small, and whether "small, skilled" is trending
We’ve heard the old adage “you can’t teach size” to explain why teams from all pro sports are always eager to draft, trade for, or sign big/tall players. And one need only look back to the last lockout-shortened season of 1994-95 to remember all the hype surrounding Philly’s Legion of Doom line of Eric Lindros, John LeClair, and Mikael Renberg, who all finished in the top 10 in scoring and averaged 6-3’ and about 235 pounds. On the heels of that, every NHL team wanted their own giant forwards, and except for outliers like 5-6’ Theo Fleury the points scoring leaders also reflected this emphasis on size in the years that followed.
Fifteen signs that your team is not going to win your league this year
Don’t look now, but the 2012-13 season is nearly half over. At this point some fantasy hockey teams are doing great and others terrible, but most probably are somewhere in the middle. But as painful as this might be to hear, many of those teams in the middle have little to no realistic chance to actually win their league. What makes that situation even worse is when those GMs finally wake up and realize their inevitable fate, it’ll be too late to try to take steps (like trades) to help put their teams in a better position for next season or down the road.
Taking a look at Face-off Win % and Power-Play Points
In last week’s column I highlighted the “Category Killers” (players who drag your team down by doing major damage in at least one category) for Hits and Blocked Shots. This week I shift to two other secondary categories – faceoff percentage and power play points – where it is just as hard (if not harder) to notice the effects of a category killer but where the effects can be just as bad (if not worse) to your team. Once again I examine the full season results from 2011-12, and then see if any of the players are on pace for improvement based on their 2012-13 numbers so far.
Category Killers - Part 1 (Hits and Blocked Shots)
If you read my Frustration Meter column from last week, one of the types of frustrating players I highlighted was the Category Killer, which is someone who drags your team down by doing major damage in at least one category. Sometimes it’s easy to tell when you have a category killer, like if he’s doing poorly in something major like goals, assists, or a widely reported category like plus/minus. But most leagues nowadays count one or more secondary categories, where it might be harder to actually notice the effects of a category killer.
Rick Roos takes a look at several types of players who are frustrating to own in fantasy hockey leagues.
What’s great about fantasy sports is that even if you don’t win your league, at least you can whine to your competitors - and in the DobberHockey forums - about your misfortune. Fantasy hockey in particular makes it pretty easy to complain, because there are so many ways your team and its players can let you down. For example, DobberHockey readers already are well aware of all too familiar frustrations like Band-Aid boys (players who are great when they’re healthy, but always seem to get hurt) and Windex Wonders (players who are either ice cold or red hot), but there are many other ways players can become sources of frustration.
This week I thought I’d go over the different types of players who can disappoint a fantasy team; and instead of an overall “Final Verdict” like I usually have in this column, I’ll rank each category of player on a “frustration meter” that ranges from one gray hair (a little annoying sometimes, but not a big deal) to five gray hairs (a major source of constant aggravation). One key thing to keep in mind – frustrating doesn’t always mean bad. Even a guy who gets a four or five on the frustration meter usually can still help your team; he just might drive you crazy in the process!
Now onto the list…
