The Wild West

There are a couple of key indicators to look for in terms of predicting success for a goaltender. There’s your basic goals against average (GAA), save percentage (SP) along with overall win/loss record. Of the three mentioned, GAA and overall record could be directly influenced by the skill of the team in front of them. For example, if a team is highly offensive (Washington, Detroit, or San Jose), their goalie is going to pick up more wins than a team that struggles offensively (Minnesota or Columbus). On a similar scale, GAA could also be affected by the team’s selected style of play (St. Louis, Phoenix, or Nashville), versus the run-and-gun style of Washington/Tampa Bay. One true indicator to determine how well a goalie is playing is to examine their save percentage. If a goalie stops nine shots in every 10, he owns a .900 save percentage. If he stops 27 in every 30 he also maintains a .900 save percentage. In the end, save percentage rarely lies about how well a goalie is playing.

The start of the 2011-2012 NHL season is well and truly underway and many of you might be a bit disappointed with your fantasy squad at the moment. What you thought three weeks ago was an invincible team has now been returned back to Earth with a thud. Keep in mind that it’s only three weeks into the season and there’s still plenty of time left to compete for the title come April. This week I’ll list off a few players that were largely ignored at the draft table, but may provide you with a much needed shot in your arm for your fantasy squad.

The start of the 2011-2012 NHL season is well and truly underway. There have been a few pleasant surprises, as well as few “red alert” moments involving key injuries. The main thing that you need to keep in mind is that the season is still young and there’s still seven months of quality hockey remaining. Similar to last season, I’ll provide you with weekly updates so that you have access to the latest news that’s been happening from the Western Conference front.

Every year there seems to be a few players that come out of nowhere to magically to give you a surprising boost, (Corey Perry, Pekka Rinne, Kari Lehtonen, Dustin Byfuglien, or Lubomir Visnovsky last season), or one that you ranked so highly but ended up destroying your season because you invested so highly on them, (Steve Mason, Bobby Ryan, or Evgeni Malkin). With a few weeks remaining before the first puck drops in the 2011-12 season, hopefully I can provide you with a last-minute look of some players out West who will either make or break your fantasy season.

The addition of peripheral stats, such as HITs and BS, has become more prevalent amongst fantasy hockey pools this season. Although there are plenty of similarities between drafting in a standard settings league (G, A, +/-, PIMs, PPP, SOG, W, SV%, GAA and SO) and a league that includes HITs and BS, the addition of two extra stats could really throw a curveball in how you approach the draft.

Over the course of the last few weekends I participated in a few Yahoo! mock drafts to gain a better grasp of what’s been going on in the “real” fantasy hockey world. I thought I’d pass my findings onto you Dobberities. I participated in random drafts ranging from eight to 14 teams from H2H to Roto leagues with standard settings. This is what I have concluded.

Over the course of the last few weekends I participated in a few Yahoo! mock drafts to gain a better grasp of what’s been going on in the real fantasy hockey world. I thought I’d pass my findings onto you Dobberities. I participated in random drafts ranging from eight to 14 teams from H2H to Roto leagues with standard settings. This is what I have concluded.

Once again, much like last year, here’s a list of players who just don’t tickle my fancy. There are a variety of reasons, ranging from my dislike of some players, changes to the team during the off-season, recovery from off-season surgery, overvalued rookies/prospects, or just plain over-inflated stats from last season.

But first a recap of the hit or misses for the players listed from last season’s column:

Following the last couple of years, here’s a list of some of the Western Conference underachieving veterans from last season. Many of them underachieved or were simply injured, which resulted in lower than normal overall numbers for 2010-11. Most pool providers generally base their draft rankings on the previous year’s stats, which could lead many of the following players to be severely undervalued heading into this season. Make sure you make a mental note of these players and don’t fall into the trap of undervaluing them like some of your competitors might on draft day.