by: Viz
There is still plenty of elite talent left on the board after the top 40 forwards are off the board; you can look at the top 40 list here. The next group contains a mix of breakout candidates, regression candidates, bounce back candidates, and guys that I expect to stay around last season’s production. Let’s get right to it!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another year of Fantasy Hockey! I am LackeyDrinksOnMe, a Sabres fan who works in college admissions by day and devours hockey analysis by night. Last year, I had a weekly column about week-long streaming opportunities, targeting mostly-available players with multiple games per week, trying to fill slots for the slowest days. In my book, more player starts means more TOI, and the more time you have players on the ice the greater the chance for a lucky assist or to rack up a few extra hits or blocked shots.
I’ve been working on a top-100 skaters for your reading pleasure, ranking skaters on 17-18 stats including points per game, points/TOI, Wins Above Replacement, Expected Goals and Actual Goals, and Offensive Point Shares, to name a few. Part of what I’ve been trying to do has been to average these metrics for a holistic impression of a skater’s talent, but also supplementing those raw rankings with player age/development and the occasional eye test.
Like Viz indicated, once you get past the first few names there can be very little separation between certain players, and this obviously isn’t meant to be a comprehensive or be-all end-all ranking. Rather, it’s to give you another perspective on where players are being valued, and might reinforce an idea you have about a skater or surprise you with a hot take. I’ll gladly take questions in the comment section.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Viz
I’m taking a small break from my rankings (don’t worry, I’ll have a bunch of posts coming out next week) to start compiling sleeper and bust posts. Now that some other outlets are posting their rankings, I’m able to gauge who I’m going to be the high man on and who I’m going to be avoiding. Dylan Larkin is ranked outside of the top 100 everywhere else, yet I have him as the 40th best forward, which should put him somewhere between 50th and 60th overall. Maybe it’s unfair to call him a sleeper, but he’s certainly undervalued by quite a bit. So what makes Dylan Larkin an incredible value in drafts this year?
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Viz
We’re keeping things moving here on the hockey side of things at Razzball as we’re less than two months from the season starting! It’s not just me: Son has his top 10 out, everyone is posting their football rankings, and Smokey has the EPL RCL set up. That’s ignoring all of the good baseball psts as we approach the closing stretch. Today, I’m completing my top 40 forward lists. Nineteen of these guys were already covered in the top 10 and top 20 posts, so the focus will be on players 20-40. Let’s get going!
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Viz
We’re back continuing this season’s rankings. You guys know the drill by now so I’m not going to waste your time with a big introduction. My main thought is that the tier that started with #8 overall (check out the top 10 here) actually goes to around 18th overall instead of 15th. The gaps between these players are much smaller than in the past so you can go a lot of different ways based on personal preference. Do you want higher upside, the safer player, six category guys? All of this is in play and will make for some interesting draft strategy. Strategy will come in later posts, but for now, let’s get through the top 20:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Viz
It’s that time of the year guys! Sure, most people are focused on football drafts right now (check out our stuff here, the guys do a great job), but hockey season is also right around the corner. I’m getting my rankings out a bit earlier this year to give me more time to slightly adjust if need be, but more importantly, to leave more time to do other preseason posts. I’ll be following a format closer to what Grey has done with baseball. You’ll have this top 10 post, a top 20 post, then I’ll be doing forwards in groups of 20, defensemen in groups of 20, followed up by one or two goalie posts. Once those are wrapped up, I’ll make one big list across all positions that will be easy for you to use during your drafts. Without further adieu, my top ten players for the upcoming NHL season!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Hello everyone! After spending most of the last two months in Vegas (including during the Stanley Cup Finals), I’m back home and ready to start writing again. I’ll be picking up things in August when I’ll be writing multiple posts a week, including my rankings early on in the month. I have a few questions I would like the readers to answer in terms of what they’d like me to write besides my rankings, but I’ll leave that for the end of this post. For now, I’m going to write a quick blurb on the five biggest moves of the offseason and what their impact is for both real life and fantasy. Let’s get to it!
Please, blog, may I have some more?It’s finally here! The Stanley Cup Playoffs are on the horizon and Reid is with me to break down all eight of the matchups. We go in order of series that we think are most lopsided to the closest series. Where do teams have the edge against each other? How are the coaches going to deploy their personnel? After looking at all of the angles, Reid and I both make our official picks, including in how many games, for each series. All of that and more in the latest edition of the Razzball Hockey Podcast!
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Viz
Hey everyone! I hope you ended up winning your fantasy championship this year. With the season over, my posts will be more sparingly. The plan is to do a podcast with Reid that will go up Wednesday with our predictions for the first round. I also will have a Way Too Early Top 50 that comes out in the next week or two. Additionally, just because I don’t post as frequently doesn’t mean you can’t ask any questions that you have with players for the future, or just thoughts on these playoffs. I get notified when anyone comments on my posts, so I will try to answer them as quickly as I do during the season. Anyways, the point of this post was to set up the Razzball Bracket Challenge. Last year, Quick Sycamore won the title, besting me as Pittsburgh (his Cup Winner) beat Nashville (my predicted winner). You and anyone else can join at the link below:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Reid and I are back to hit on a wide array of topics around the NHL. Among the notables are the playoff battles, the most disappointing teams, top prospects who have recently made their NHL debut, and injuries around the league. We wrap things up with The Three Point Challenge for tonight’s games. Make your pick in the comments section below. All of that and more on the latest edition of The Razzball Hockey Podcast!
Please, blog, may I have some more?