Top 10 Fantasy Stories of 2014-15

Tom Collins

2015-04-06

CareyPrice

Here are the Top 10 fantasy hockey stories of 2014-15…

By now, most fantasy championships have been decided. For those still left in it, there's not much left to do than wait to see how the next seven days play out.

With the fantasy season coming to a close, this is a good time to look back at the season and see what emerged as the top fantasy stories. Coaching changes, injuries, and a generational talent being available in this summer's draft have all had an impact on our fantasy seasons in one way or another.

6. Alexander Ovechkin

At what stage will this guy stop scoring? Many think it should have happened by now, but he's clearly the most dominant goal scorer since Brett Hull and hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. He's about to win his fifth Rocket Richard trophy, and his third straight. Even in his down seasons, he still finds a way to score. In any league that counts shots, or gives extra points for goals, he's clearly the number one pick for the next few seasons.

 

5. Rise of the Flames

Many had the Flames pegged as being one of the worst teams this season, but them fighting for a playoff spot has been a boon for fantasy managers. Jiri Hudler is probably going to be a top 10 point getter. Johnny Gaudreau has been one of the best rookies. Mark Giordano was the best defenceman in the NHL before his injury. Kris Russell set an NHL record for most blocks in a season. They are the only team in the league to have three defencemen with at least 40 points. Sean Monahan has been a better sophomore than Nathan MacKinnon. Really, their goalies are the only ones to not have any significant impact this season.

 

4. Surprise goalies

There were plenty of great comeback stories to choose from for goalies. Brayden Holtby stepped up after losing the starting job twice last season. Pekka Rinne came back from a bad hip injury to be one of the top goalies. But when you think of goalies coming out of nowhere, two guys come to mind. Devan Dubnyk stepped up from being the backup on the Habs AHL team last season to being a top 10 goalie this year and probably the best choice for the Masterton award, as well as a Vezina trophy finalist (he's sixth in wins, second in goals against, second in save percentage and fourth in shutouts). The second goalie is Andrew Hammond. On Feb. 6, the Sens were closer to the Oilers and the second overall pick then they were the playoffs. The Hamburgler is a big reason why the Sens went from being a lottery team to a couple of wins from making the postseason.

 

3. Peter Horachek hired

When Randy Carlyle was fired by the Leafs back in January, the team was in a bit of a freefall in the standings, but the players were still producing. Phil Kessel had 19 points in 19 games. James Van Riemsdyk had 20 points in 18 games. Tyler Bozak had 15 points in 20 games. Dion Phaneuf had 14 in 22 games. And so on. But the Leafs were horrible in advanced stats, getting horrible outshot most games. So Horachek worked on fixing that, changing the Leafs system, break outs, offensive zone pressure, etc. And the Leafs have been horrible. The team scored 12 goals combined in the first 10 games under Horachek, and overall, the goals per game for dipped from 3.2 under Randy Caryle to 1.9 under Horachek.

 

2. Tanking for McDavid

Just like the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes, odds are you've seen a few teams tank in your league to try to get the number one spot to select Connor McDavid. If your league has rules against tanking, owners were working on loopholes. If there are no rules, then gloves were off.  My main points only keeper league has a draft lottery where any team can move up, and a team can drop as much as three spots, so there's no guarantees of the number one pick. In fact, the worst team has never won the draft lottery, and I believe a top-five team has won it two or three times in our five-year history. An expansion team who had traded his pick away a year ago decided in December to trade Rinne, Toffoli, Burns and Brodie for his own pick back and Nurse. It shifted the dynamics of the league as one GM took a huge lead with that trade. As for the other guy, he's the worst team in the league, but could still wind up with the fourth overall pick this offseason. But it was a gamble he was willing to make. I bet that's mild to what a lot of leagues are going through. It's crazy how bad it's been in the NHL, I can only imagine what fantasy leagues must be experiencing.

 

1. Price is all Hart

Carey Price is about to win the Hart trophy. There's no argument why he shouldn't, as no player has really stepped up as much as he has. If fantasy hockey had its version of a Hart trophy, he'd win that as well. Price has been absolutely dominant this season, as he leads the league in goals against average, save percentage, wins and shutouts. Has any goalie ever done that? I know it hasn't been done since the 1989-90 season. Without hyperbole, this may have been the greatest goalie season in the history of fantasy hockey. 

 

 

Top 10 Rookies 2014-15 NHL Season      
Top 10 Surprises 2014-15      
Top 10 Fantasy Hockey Duds Of The Season      

 

 

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