Today, I move from overall rankings to goaltenders only. I'm going to cover my first four tiers today out of eight. This will take me through 16 goalies. These guys all have a realistic chance of finishing as a top 10 goalie this season to varying degrees. There are some guys in the lower tiers who have an outside chance, but a lot will have to go right for them. That post will not be as detailed as the previous three posts. It will be in part, but when we get to tiers that are beyond desperation, it will be more of a list. But enough about tomorrow's post, let's get to the top goalies!
We're moving along to the players ranked 11th-20th overall today. If you missed the Top 10, you can check that out here. I'm sure this is going to be another long post, so let's get to it!
11) Mitch Marner - As talked about in the last post, there's not much separating the players from the end of the top 10 through the top 20. At the end of the day, I'm going to continue to play it safe and go with high floors. Marner set a career high in points last season with 97 in only 72 games. He was above three shots per game for the first time, and we know the plus-minus will be quite good. He's a little light on the penalty minutes, but at some point, you have to accept that and take a player who is probably a favorite to score 100 points this season, just like Barkov before him.
It's time to take my annual journey through the NHL writing 20,000+ words ranking everyone throughout the NHL. I'm starting with the top 20 overall today, before doing two defensemen posts, at least one goaltending post, four forward posts, and another ranking list for the top 200 overall. These rankings go towards a scoring focus, meaning G, A, PPP, and SOG, while also acknowledging plus-minus and PIMs as categories that most people use. I do not look at hits and blocks, although I will mention where there is extra value in the hits department specifically. Let's get to it!
Today, I’m going to look at all of the impactful offseason moves in the Western Conference. If you didn’t catch my post on the Eastern Conference, you can do that here. Please, blog, may I have some more?
I hope all you loyal Razzballers are doing well! We're just over a month away from the NHL season starting, and with football starting tonight (Go Bills!), it's time for people to transition to fantasy hockey drafts. I'm going to start my rankings next week, but for today, I'm going to look at every team's offseason. Some teams made massive changes and will have a longer write up e.g. Calgary, and others who did minimal will have a short blurb e.g. the Islanders. Let's get to it!
We've reached the last day of the regular season with all 16 playoff teams decided. All that's left for tonight is teams playing for seeding and draft position. With 30 teams playing today, everyone should have a full lineup on the last day of the season. It would be wise to pick up some guys for your bench just in case players sit out and you can make sure you have a full lineup. For those of you that have a lot on the line the last day of the season, best of luck. In my biggest league, I'm up one point in roto with a handful of points that can swing to potentially drop me into second. What better drama than coming down to the bitter end?
We're rapidly approaching the end of the season which means it's time to look back at what went right and what went wrong for my preseason predictions. Today, we're going to look at my 10 bold predictions, and JKJ's five to see how well we did. If you have any questions for the last three days of the season, please ask them in the comments section and I'll be sure to answer them. For JKJ's, my comments on his predictions from the preseason are italicized. Let's get to it!
We've reached the final week of the season with every team having 2-3 games left. Hopefully you're all still in contention in your leagues so these games matter to you. In this post, I'm going to take a look at each day to see how you can plan accordingly to maximize starts and stream the best players possible. Let's get to it!
The Panthers have won 11 in a row, and 14 of their past 15 games. There's been plenty of crazy games in this stretch that has them tied for the league lead in points. On Tuesday, they tied the game with less than four minutes left before they won it 20 seconds into overtime, and it was the usual suspects. Aleksander Barkov scored all three goals in the 3-2 OT win, with Jonathan Huberdeau assisting on all three goals. Barkov has a new career high in goals, 37, despite playing in only 63 games to this point. Additionally, Huberdeau now leads the league in points. Yes, that's correct, he leads the league in points. Both of them will be in the discussion to be first round picks in drafts next season. It's going to be great to see them in the playoffs, hopefully for longer than last time around. Let's see what else happened on Tuesday:
Every season, Kevin Fiala finishes on an absolute tear. This season, he's found another level. Fiala had a goal and three assists on Sunday against the Sharks, bringing his totals to 29+44 in 75 games with over three shots per game, all career highs. I've been driving the Fiala bandwagon forever, and I still think it could even get better. He's still only averaging 17:23 per game, a number that's low for a player of his caliber. The Wild have a massive decision this summer with Fiala. They will have to trade players away in order to be able to keep him, and it seems like Guerin has been hesitant to do that since he's taken over. What if Fiala goes somewhere and plays for 20 minutes on somebody's first line? To my amazement, Fiala is still only 25 years old. There are a lot of things that are working in Fiala's favor. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last few days:
It wasn't that long ago that Vladimir Tarasenko requested a trade from the Blues. It wasn't that long ago that Tarasenko could have went to Seattle in the expansion draft. Now, St. Louis has to be thanking their lucky stars that he's still on the roster. Tarasenko had his biggest game of the season on Thursday, scoring a hat trick on four shots and adding two more assists in the 6-2 win over the Sabres. Tarasenko now has 31+41 in 67 games, with a great chance of setting a career high in points. It's a remarkable turnaround for the Russian who is certainly a top 100 player for drafts next season. I don't see him cracking the top 50, but it's great to see Tarasenko playing great hockey again. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
I've been aggressive ranking Matthew Tkachuk for years, but I never expected this type of offense from him. Tkachuk had a hat trick on Tuesday, bringing his season totals up to 37+55 in 73 games. He has a chance for 100 points, he's +49, the PIM are strong, and his shot rate is over three per game. Tkachuk is pretty much having a Marchand-esque season. That's the Marchand who has been a top five player for the past 4-5 years. Now, I'm not quite going there with Tkachuk for next season. Gaudreau could leave and this is an outlier in terms of past performance. That said, he's firmly in the first round pick discussion because he smashes every category. I can't wait to see what he does in the playoffs. Let's take a look at what else happened the last two nights:
