z-Archives (other articles)

There are hockey pools... and then there are fantasy leagues.

There are thousands of people out there who are content with joining a run-of-the-mill pool, whose self-esteem and personal happiness aren’t tied up in the performance of their team. You know the type... twenty minutes before the office draft, they can be found frantically trying to print off last year’s stats from NHL.com. During the draft they say things like, “I thought Marian Hossa plays for Pittsburgh,” and then they try to draft Joe Sakic, not realizing that he just retired. In other words, they don’t take their fantasy hockey all that seriously... not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Every Wednesday this summer, I will bring you a sleeper to watch for the 2009-2010 season (and potentially beyond). Released in no particular order, I will refrain from picking sleepers that have already shown glimpses of breaking out in the past – the obvious candidates. Time to go beneath the surface for some sleepers that you may not have thought about…

With the re-signing of Brian Elliott, many of you are wondering just what will happen this season between he and Pascal Leclaire. The Senators definitely have one of the more interesting (yet fairly positive) goaltending situations in the league right now. The recently acquired and highly touted “starter” is coming off an extremely difficult ankle injury, while the “backup” has been rewarded for his strong statistical play last season with a new contract, which means the expectations exist for him to improve on those numbers.

After a one-week hiatus, the summer sleeper series has returned. This special edition will contain much more than usual. In addition to the analysis of a sleeper pick, I will be announcing my Sleeper of the Year for 2009-2010. Past winners of this prestigious title include Zach Parise, Brent Burns, and Steve Bernier. First, I will start off with the player I had originally planned to discuss last week - Chris Butler. After that I will get to the big announcement.

There’s an interesting decision for Team Canada to make regarding their third goaltender. Obviously Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo are currently seen as the team’s top two masked men of choice, as they lead the way in overall experience. But between Cam Ward, Marc-Andre Fleury and Steve Mason, which one is best suited as the third?

There’s an interesting dynamic in the Anaheim crease this year, which presents us with a perfect topic for today’s class. What makes this situation so different from other NHL teams is not only the rise and fall of the two goalies over the last two years, but more importantly, their style. As is the case with any two goalies, there are some similarities, but with Jonas Hiller and J.S. Giguere, I see two goalies with different styles heading in opposite directions.

Every Wednesday this summer, I will bring you a sleeper to watch for the 2009-2010 season (and potentially beyond). Released in no particular order, I will refrain from picking sleepers that have already shown glimpse of breaking out in the past – the obvious candidates. Time to go beneath the surface for some sleepers that you may have not thought about…

Remind me to let Dobber Nation choose the lesson plan more often. All of the requests were quite astute, so rest assured I’ll be doing this more often. Now a few of you posed the same question: who will be this season’s breakout goalie? You thirst for that answer because it could turn your entire season around. But alas, that question is my topic for Dobber’s upcoming fantasy guide, so I chose another question that would act as a perfect prelude to the answer which so many of you seek.

How should a fantasy GM weigh skill level (talent & ability) versus opportunity? This is a great question (WTG, Sentium) and an interesting one because it’s completely unique to all fantasy managers. Every goalie is different and every team has different dynamics when it comes to dishing out the minutes played. So what, exactly, should fantasy managers focus on in order to find the goalie poised to be the next Hiller or Clemmensen? Which one matters more?