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Ultimate Fantasy Pool Guide 2017-18
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
DO YOUR DRAFT ONE DAY AT A TIME
THERE’S NOTHING WORSE than taking Steven Stamkos with your first draft pick and finding out two weeks later he’s out for the season with a knee injury. There’s nothing better than drafting Stamkos and knowing for sure he’s going to be in your lineup that night. OK, there’s also nothing better than finding out an opponent in your fantasy league picked Stamkos and lost their first-round pick for the season, but what we’re trying to describe is the basic difference between a season- long draft and a daily draft. If you’re not familiar with how standard daily drafts work, it’s simple. You pick a team of nine skaters and a goalie, and stay within the salary structure. The more fantasy points a player is projected to get, the higher his salary. There are…
DON’T GET COMPLACENT
THE LAST WORD WITH MATT LARKIN @THNMATTLARKIN I WON IT ALL. Then I got cocky. Then I lost it all. I’d cracked the code in 2015. I was a fantasy hockey visionary, or so I thought. My primary league included most standard scoring categories, with hits and blocks replacing penalty minutes to better approximate grit. Early in the draft, my rivals let their real-life biases creep in. So what if Drew Doughty had fallen short of 40 points for three straight years, they thought. He’s amazing. He got snapped up in the first few rounds, as did the likes of Shea Weber. Meanwhile, I waited on defensemen, knowing a 35-point scorer in the 14th round was better value than a “brand name” 37-point guy in the fourth. I loaded up on scoring forwards…
PLAN FOR THE FUTURE TODAY
THE KEEPER FORMAT mimics real life like nothing else in fantasy, as it lets poolies build their rosters over the long term. That also makes for tricky decisionmaking. Are today’s superstars worth more than tomorrow’s or vice versa? The truth is somewhere in between. When projecting players for keeper leagues, youth matters, but you still want your team competitive in the present, too. Arizona Coyotes prospect Clayton Keller should be a great NHL scorer someday, but will he overtake Sidney Crosby’s point total in the next two or three years? That’s doubtful. So we present these top-30 keeper rankings by position with an eye on the present and the future. Think of them as how we see each player performing over the next three seasons. CENTER 1. Connor McDavid 20 2. Auston Matthews 20 3. Jack Eichel…
FABULOUS & 40 & ON THE CLOCK
IF JAROMIR JAGR, Jarome Iginla, Shane Doan and Matt Cullen don’t play another NHL game, they’ll still never be able to say they were cheated. Hockey’s cast of fabulous 40-somethings have had remarkable pro careers that go back more than two decades. Regardless, that doesn’t mean they’re ready to pack it in. But they were on the outside looking in as the first few weeks of free agent season passed. And that meant they were still UFAs as deadline for the Ultimate Fantasy Pool Guide arrived. Jagr, 45, has played for eight NHL teams since he was an 18-year-old rookie back in 1990. He wants to keep his career going and even resorted to social media and humor to get that message across. Iginla, 40, is still looking for that elusive Stanley…
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