The Wild West

As vexing as It can be to rely on goaltenders that spend half their time on the bench, there can be benefits. We all know to pick up handcuffs, but sometimes we must look less at obtaining a handcuffed pair and more at collecting mismatched pieces. Unless you can nab one of the upper echelon [...]

Digging deep on forwards from SJS, STL, VAN and WIN. Are the trends for real? […]

  The column this week will focus once again on forwards, and will be the final edition of the Real or Imagined series for this year. In the interest of expediency here is a brief list of the factors that go into the evaluation of the forwards in this column: shot quantity and quality, primary [...]

Digging deep on the forwards for COL, DAL, EDM – are the trends for real?   Real or Imagined: Forwards Part 2 (2016) Having covered goalies and defensemen thus far in the series it is now time for the second of a four-part examination of the Western Conference forwards. For forwards it is important to [...]

Digging deep on the forwards for ANA, ARI, CGY, CHI – are the trends for real?   Real or Imagined: Forwards Part 1 (2016) Having covered goalies and defensemen thus far in the series it is now time for the first of a four-part examination of the Western Conference forwards. For forwards it is important [...]

  The third installment of the Real or Imagined series focuses on the defensemen of Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, St.Louis, San Jose, Vancouver and Winnipeg. It is time to evaluate the second half of the Western Conference defensemen. As always the evaluation is based on their ability to generate shots, the amount of power-play time [...]

The second installment of the Real or Imagined series focuses on the defensemen of Anaheim, Arizona, Calgary, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas and Edmonton.   For defensemen there are three big factors for this sort of evaluation: percentage of his team's available power-play time, shot rate and assist rate. The best fantasy defensemen make their living on [...]

  Having just passed the quarter mark of the season for most of the teams in the NHL it is time for the third annual installment of the Real or Imagined feature in the Wild West column. As always it starts with a team-by-team look at the goalies of the Western Conference and gives buy/sell [...]

Here are 10 Western Conference depth players to consider in deeper leagues     Digging Deep A lot of the stronger depth plays in the West this year are better known players such as Mike Fish and Craig Smith in Nashville or Jason Zucker and Nino Niederreiter in Minnesota. This year focuses a lot more [...]

A close look the power plays of NSH, ANA, CGY, ARI, WPG and LAK   This week focuses on the six power plays from around the Western conference, including two of the best, two of the worst and two with interesting developments. Power play time has always been a driver for top players accounting for [...]