Stuff from former regular columnists such as Chris Burns, Eric Maltais, Jacob Status, Jim Gunther and Jeff Angus, as well as guest columnists such as Gus Katsaros from McKeen‘s, Jon Press from Japer’s Rink and more!
The Americans are heavy underdogs at the World Juniors this year, while the Russians boast their usual offensive arsenal. Who are the key players to watch for? Anyone you should try and nab in your fantasy pool? Read on to find out.
Fantasy hockey is an exercise in decision making. Successful fantasy GMs are separated from their less decorated peers by virtue of their decisions. That’s not to say that plain old dumb luck isn’t a factor – we all know it is. But despite this, we bravely do our best to anticipate trends, or at worst, we try to react effectively to unforeseen events.
Fantasy hockey is an exercise in decision making. Successful fantasy GMs are separated from their less decorated peers by virtue of their decisions. That’s not to say that plain old dumb luck isn’t a factor – we all know it is. But despite this, we bravely do our best to anticipate trends, or at worst, we try to react effectively to unforeseen events.
For your listening pleasure - put it on your Ipod or just listen in on your computer! Dobber Nation appears on the 25th of every month, except December (Christmas). Let's talk some fantasy hockey!
Andrew Walker has a conversation with Sportsnet's Peter Loubardias about some players to keep an eye on in the upcoming WJC tournament, such as Nikita Filatov, Mattias Tedenby, Tomas Tatar and more; Alessandro Seren Rosso is an expert on Russian hockey players and he discusses the status and skills of various well-known Russian hockey personalities; Dobber discusses the offense situation in Nashville and Phoenix, as well as players such as Marc Savard, Mathieu Perreault, Nathan Horton and who he will be watching at the WJC; Top 2010 potential draftee Mark Pysyk jumps on with his experiences going through an NHL draft year.
You can download the file in our Dobber Nation page (click HERE) or on ITunes
Goldman delves further into the Mason/Garon situation in Columbus
Ken Hitchcock met with Mathieu Garon and Steve Mason together on Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after the team suffered a self-induced early implosion against the Colorado Avalanche. To summarize what the conversation entailed, Hitchcock had this choice quote for Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch:
"Win and you're in," Hitchcock said. "That's where we're at now. If a guy wins, he keeps on playing." (Source)
Canada’s final roster for the upcoming World Juniors has been released. Upon first glance, the 2010 edition of Team Canada lacks some of the firepower that has been on display in recent years. However, there still is a lot of talent and grit at all positions, and Canada has to be considered a favourite as they look to win a record-setting sixth straight gold medal. If you haven’t had a chance to check out my article on the WJHC and how you can use it to your advantage in your hockey pool, do so now.
Chris Boyle is back with his monthly roto rankings. Unfortunately, to quote Boyle - "my real job got in the way of my fake job this month", so you'll have to wait until January for the hilarity of his fine wit to resume.
Just remember that unlike the other rankings on this site, the roto rankings gives you the value of the player in rotisserie leagues season-to-date, and does not project for the future...
The fine lines separating quality long-term fantasy goalie gems from total busts become more blurred with every passing day. The position is kind of like an amorphic, shape-shifting biological entity that finds a way to mutate into a stronger, more refined being. The different genetic codes that make up every NHL goalie then leads to many different interpretations of what the future holds for said goalie. To be blunt, nobody knows for sure what will happen next.
Now more than ever, with so many seemingly solid prospects evolving at a younger age (and all over the European leagues), you need to have a much wider scope of things and see the big picture. By that, I just mean understanding what it takes for any style of goalie to compete and win in today’s NHL game, both mentally and technically.
Welcome once again to “An Expert’s Audit”. This audit will be posted here as well as on my fantasy hockey blog at www.fantasyhockey.hockeyanalysis.com . I also do weekly reviews of teams for people who email in to me for a look-see. These audits will continue to appear here monthly and if you’re interested in having your keeper team “worked over” then you can begin by emailing Dobber (contact link at bottom of website) about it. But send it in by the 15th, as I will be starting on my next one at that point.
Last month we had the first woman step up for an Expert’s Audit in the whatever number of years that I’ve been doing this thing and I thought, that was fun let’s do that again. So along came Leah, a Bruins fan who wanted to step out and show that not only do women play fantasy hockey, they win at it too.
My opinion on Eric Fehr has been shared a few times here at DobberHockey. Fehr has been mentioned briefly in past articles as well as in a few of the daily ramblings. However, it is time to expand on why he is such an undervalued fantasy player, with a particular focus on his value in keeper leagues.
