Roos Lets Loose

 
Despite never having laced up a pair of skates (except for those of his two young sons) and growing up in Red Sox crazed Massachusetts, Rick Roos has been a huge hockey fan nearly all of his life.  Inspired by often wearing a Canadiens jersey to the old Boston Garden (it’s a long story…) and living to tell about it, Rick started to join fantasy hockey leagues back in the 90s, where he found himself waiting eagerly by a fax machine for weekly stats updates.  He has since been in – and won – leagues featuring elite fantasy hockey writers. In real life, Rick is an attorney, which made him the perfect choice to write his previous “Holding Court” column on DobberHockey, where he debated both sides of a fantasy hockey issue and rendered a verdict for readers to debate. Later, for several years, he did similar for the popular “Cage Match” series. Today, Roos is freewheeling through a variety of monthly pieces: Forum Buzz takes a look at some hot topics our readers are discussing in the forum; Mailbag allows readers to write in to Roos with fantasy hockey questions; Goldipucks and the Three Skaters takes a look at three players (in the spirit of the old Cage Match, except Roos determines who is too hot, too cold…and ju-u-ust right); The Tournament is where Roos polls the readers and the forum community on a certain topic, just the way Tourneys ran in the old Cage Match, until a winning player in that topic is declared.
 
  

P.K. Subban vs. Kris Letang

By |2015-07-24T08:56:42-04:00April 24th, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

 KrisLetang

 

 

Laidlaw's latest cage match - PK Subban vs. Kris Letang

I have been waiting for months, nay years, to spring a Kris Letang vs. Erik Karlsson Cage Match. It feels like it should be a compelling matchup. The problem is every chance Letang gets to sneak ahead he goes and gets hurt. He’s now officially on Dobber’s Band-Aid Boy list. Injuries are always going to be a problem with him – there’s just no avoiding that now. So as much as I would love to spout on about how Letang could be a better bet than Karlsson in a fantasy league I can’t because he can’t stay healthy long enough for that to be a reasonable possibility. And yes Karlsson is out with that gross Achilles slicing incident, which caused us to demote him from god-status to demi-god, but the freak of nature may actually play on Thursday! He’s back up to god status – nothing can hold him back. It feels like it’s taken Karlsson less time to get back from this Achilles cut than it has for Letang to get back from his groin pull (and that’s only part hyperbole). Seriously, I would love to do this Cage Match, but Karlsson is in-human. We’ve got to find a better comparison.

Enter Pernell-Karl Subban.

 

Time to Downgrade

By |2015-07-24T08:56:45-04:00April 23rd, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

MikkoKoivu

 

 

Time to downgrade Pavelski, Ryan, Staal, Sharp and Koivu says Rick Roos

Every year right before the playoffs, while information is still fresh on our minds about players from all 30 teams, it’s good to take stock of what happened during the season and how it might impact the future. Some people like to make mental notes on which guys are trending upward or might be poised for a breakout next season; but I find that doing the opposite actually can be more useful and reliable at this point in time.  So instead, I figure out which guys I can finally write off as never being able to achieve a certain level of production – I call it my “time to downgrade” guys.

 

Eric Staal vs. Anze Kopitar

By |2015-07-24T08:57:11-04:00April 17th, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

EricStaal

 

 

After a brief Stamkos vs. Tavares discussion, Laidlaw looks at Eric Staal vs. Anze Kopitar

I recently asked for suggestions for my next Cage Match article. From the sounds of it you guys really, really, really want to see a Steven Stamkos vs. John Tavares matchup. Here’s the problem – it’s too damned simple. Seriously, the only acceptable answer is Stamkos. I get that Tavares has similarly great pedigree and is really starting to shine but to this point Stamkos has a far better track record of NHL production. Why go out on a limb?

 

The Playoff Chase – Fantasy Impact

By |2015-07-24T08:57:14-04:00April 16th, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

PatrickKane

 

 Roos investigates the fantasy impact of teams changing philosophy down the stretch...

As if fantasy hockey isn’t challenging enough, we’ve now entered the final stretch of the regular season. This means that NHL teams have changed their focus and approach, depending on where they are in the playoff hunt. Of course this will impact players on those teams, and fantasy owners who are in tight races will need to factor in even more variables than usual in setting their lineups. So this week, let's discuss the ways that three types of teams will alter their game plans, and how that in turn will affect the fantasy value of their players: 

1. locks for a playoff spot

2. actively fighting for a playoff spot

3. out of the playoff hunt.

 

Artem Anisimov vs. Shawn Matthias

By |2015-07-24T08:57:41-04:00April 10th, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

ArtemAnisimov 

 

 

This week's fantasy hockey cage match: Anisimov vs. Matthias.

 

Post-hype sleeper is a term you don’t hear often in fantasy hockey (it’s more of a fantasy baseball term) but I feel like it’s a term every poolie should get acquainted with regardless of his fantasy sport of choice. The reason is that the post-hype sleeper is quite possibly the best bang for your buck you can find. For instance, if you were patient or savvy enough to acquire any of Sam Gagner, Nazem Kadri or Jakub Voracek you’d have landed yourself a player far exceeding his projections and his draft slot if only because some of the shine had worn off because of exposure. These guys pop up every year though – after disappointing us for years they finally “get it” and produce. Joffrey Lupul and Blake Wheeler were two fine examples from last year and if you still aren’t convinced that the post-hype sleeper is a real thing well then I guess you can just keep on hitting the snooze button. This week’s Cage Match features two such post-hype sleepers, Artem Anisimov vs. Shawn Matthias.

 

What’s got into these guys?

By |2015-07-24T08:57:47-04:00April 9th, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

AndrewLadd

 

At this point in the season, several players are still scoring at a pace that’s well above their career high in points. Of course the question is whether their current jump in production will continue down the road, or just amount to a blip in the radar once we get to next season and beyond. This is a big issue, since in some cases it could turn a fantasy unworthy player into someone you'd want to draft or pick up, or it could help convince you to take steps to acquire a player (through the draft or by trade) that might already be on your fantasy radar. With these things in mind, we'll look at four forwards who have seen a big increase in point production pace this season, and I’ll issue a “Final Verdict” on what point production you should expect from that player in the coming years.

 

5 Huge Deadline Mistakes to Avoid

By |2015-07-24T08:58:08-04:00April 3rd, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

mistakes

 

 

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.

 

Zach Parise vs. Alex Ovechkin

By |2015-07-24T08:58:28-04:00March 27th, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

AlexOvechkin 

 

 

This week's Cage Match investigates the fantasy value of... Parise vs. Ovechkin

Lists make for great internet reading. They are usually tightly structured and easy to follow. Bleacher Report has built and entire website around the concept of lists. My favourite lists have to be Jeff Angus’ annual Top 10’s. If you aren’t reading those then you are missing out. As much as I love reading lists, I hate writing them because it’s way too easy for dinks (like me) with a keyboard and a modem to read a list and start poking holes. For instance, in Angus’ Top 10 Left Wingers piece he ranked Zach Parise ahead of Alexander Ovechkin. My head nearly exploded.

 

Over 30, But Yet to Peak

By |2015-07-24T08:58:34-04:00March 26th, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

ChrisKunitz

 

 

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.

 

Under 30, But Has Already Peaked

By |2015-07-24T08:59:00-04:00March 19th, 2013|Roos Lets Loose|

JonathanToews

 

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.

 

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