I've been stubborn in terms of thinking Dougie Hamilton was going to have a massive fantasy season for years now. Loyal Razzballers know my love for guys who hit all of the categories, and Hamilton has always done that. It seems like Carolina is finally giving him the chance to be the #1 guy in all situations and he's off to a tremendous start. On Friday, Dougie scored a goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM. He followed that up with a goal on five shots Saturday, bringing him to 4+4 in 6 games with 19 shots, 6 PIM and +7. Obviously he's not going to keep up this pace, but this is the kind of start that can allow Hamilton to finish as a top five defenseman. In fact, gun to head, I'd bet on it happening right now. If you follow my rankings, odds are that you have Hamilton on your team in redrafts or keepers. If that's the case, don't even consider selling high because this isn't a fluke. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
I normally don't give the extended intro to the same player twice in a short period of time but my boy Blake Wheeler gets the honor tonight. Wheeler's excellent play continued on Monday night dishing four assists in the 4-1 win over the Stars, adding four shots and a +3 rating. All of a sudden, Wheeler is quietly creeping up on the Tampa duo sitting third in the league in points. 5+16, +7, 14 PIM, 9 STP, 46 SOG is Wheeler's line through 14 games. I don't know what you guys think of that but it seems like an okay start to the season. Loyal readers know I've long praised Wheeler as the most underrated superstar in the game and there are simply few players who consistently play at the level he does. Let's take a look at what else happened in the 6 game slate on Monday:
Hello Razzballers, Reid here.
While Viz is off doing things in Vegas that will inherently stay in Vegas, I'm going to bring you the daily writeup from the Monday and Tuesday games (doing a separate post for just one game on Monday makes absolutely no sense). Nikita Kucherov is against hot hot hot as he has a goal in each of the first 6 games for Tampa Bay. I'm only going to highlight the notables from these games that you should be focusing on.
The streak has finally ended. After 26 consecutive seasons of making the playoffs, the Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs last season. They are a team that seems to be stuck in no man's land. They have an exciting young forward core in place (although some of them disappointed last season) but they also have a older set of players that are approaching the end. Additionally, they have one of the worst bluelines in the league. In a division full of teams on the rise, Detroit seems to be lagging a step behind. Let's take a look at what Detroit is working with:
After spending Part One highlighting the mistakes I made, it's time to give myself some credit! Today, I'm going to look at the players who I was highest on among experts on Fantasy Pros that outperformed their ranking and then the players I was lowest on that failed to meet expectations. Like Part One, I will break down each of the players discussing why my ranking was successful and what we can learn from it going forward. Let's get to it!
For the majority of his professional career, Connor Hellebuyck has gone up and down more than an elevator. He's bounced around the NHL and AHL along with starting and being the backup in Winnipeg despite the fact that he's clearly their best option between the pipes. That's not to say Hellboy has been a great goalie throughout. In fact, he's had plenty of times where he looks rough. That's simply the nature of the beast in the NHL being a young goalie. Hellboy was at the bottom last week allowing five goals in consecutive starts. Naturally, he turns things around this weekend with a 29 save shutout against the Blues and saving 22 of 23 shots in the 6-1 win over the Avalanche. The numbers are poor on the whole but he has won half of his games. Should he be owned right now? I think you have to gamble on the upside in 12'ers. The main point is that this season has done nothing to dissuade me from loving Hellebuyck in dynasties. We all know that the Jets are loaded with offensive talent that is only going to get better and Hellebuyck will be a beneficiary. The prospect cupboard remains full despite all of their recent graduates and most importantly, there are a bunch on the blue line. What do I expect him next season? Probably a #2 goalie with upside to be a #1 who should be owned in all leagues. Long term? He should eventually develop into a guy who is a middling to bottom end #1 year in and year out. Bottom line, I'm still driving the Hellboy bandwagon! Here's what else happened around the league last weekend:
Holy smokes, over 5000 words! This is quite the recap of the last 5 days of hockey. I had a introduction all set to go around Milan Lucic but I had to erase it and give the lede to Michael Cammalleri. Cammalleri mysteriously missed six games in a row before returning on Wednesday night. It turns out that his 5 year old daughter Chloe had severe pneumonia which eventually required surgery. On this Thanksgiving weekend, we're thankful that she's going to make a full recovery. Dad returned and had a three game stretch for the ages. He started with a remarkable goal and three assists with 9 SOG in the 5-4 shootout win over Toronto. Cammy followed it up totaling a goal, assist, four shots and two PIM in the 5-4 loss to Detroit before scoring 2 goals on 4 shots in the 4-3 shootout loss to Pittsburgh. Just a measly 8 points in 3 games, no big deal. He's almost back to a point per game (just like last season) with three shots per game and solid penalty minutes. Cammalleri is still available in over 50% of leagues and to be blunt, that's a huge mistake. If you're in one of those leagues, go grab him now. Here's a look at the last five days around the league. I'm going to go through day by day but in the format most people like; just note that a player may be mentioned multiple times.
The hockey season has finally started! With four games in the books, I'll wait until tomorrow night to recap them all instead of doing a very short post today that would mainly consist of gushing over Auston Matthews' debut. Instead, there is a podcast that will be posted in the afternoon (I'm editing it this morning) and then this post, something I've been excited to do for a while. I've mentioned repeatedly how poor the rankings are for the "big" websites so I'm going to review ESPN's final staff rankings. You can find them here to follow along. Yes, their rankings include time on ice but there is still a pile of things that are unexplainable. At the end of this post, I'll list the players who I am much higher or lower than consensus on plus some streamers for Thursday. Let's get to it!
1989-90. That's the last time the Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs. The streak was in serious jeopardy last season as Detroit didn't have a point to spare finishing in a tie for 3rd in the Atlantic but getting in on a tiebreaker; no team in the Eastern Conference made the playoffs with less points. Following the departure of Pavel Datsyuk, the Red Wings are faced with their toughest challenge yet to keep the streak alive. From a fantasy point of view, their roster is loaded with players who have great upside but also a low floor. Let's take a look!
Hey guys. The first two nights of The Stanley Cup Playoffs have been filled with drama and outstanding performances. Anytime somebody scores a hat trick in the playoffs, it's worth noting so Patric Hornqvist gets the lead here. The Penguins right winger, who had a disappointing season compared to ADP, came out as a man on a mission Wednesday night scoring a hat trick on four shots and added an assist in the 5-2 win over the Rangers. This series could turn ugly fast if Henrik Lundqvist misses any more time (more on that later). Hornqvist was in my top 50 going into the season along with the rest of the Penguins studs and ended up 60th in overall value in the player rater. Considering he played all 82 games, that's not the value we were looking for. As for next season, he's obviously in the top 100 but I expect him to settle outside of the top 50, somewhere between 50 and 75. The shots are great and everything else should be solid so there's value there but it doesn't look like he's going to be a guy who has a good chance of reaching 30+ goals, which looked like a good bet when he went to the Penguins. Could he do it? Sure, if things go right and he sticks with Sidney Crosby. But I'd rather wait until the end of the 5th or 6th round to find out. Here's what else I saw in the other games:
The story of the weekend around the league was the goaltending performances. There were quite a few duds and a bunch of outstanding starts, including 3 shutouts Friday, 4 shutouts Saturday and one more on Sunday. The best of the bunch was a 38 save shutout by Fredrik Andersen in the 4-0 win against the Bruins on Friday. It's rare for the Ducks to be outshot but they buried their chances and were continually bailed out by Andersen. We all know that Andersen is very good at this point so the most telling thing was that in their next game, John Gibson received the start despite Andersen coming off a shutout. Bruce Boudreau is giving both of his goalies plenty of action and seemingly has a set schedule so you have to pay attention every day and start whoever gets the nod. Here's what else I saw around the league this weekend, starting with Friday's games:
The Florida Panthers have had so many high draft picks that among their young core, Vincent Trocheck tends to be forgotten. The 22 year old has taken a massive step forward in his progression this season and he had his best game to date on Thursday, scoring a goal and three assists in the 6-2 win over the Senators. Trocheck now has 20+25 with solid numbers in all categories with 15 games to go. He's 90% at this point (I'm surprised it's not 100%) and should make a nice target in the mid to late rounds in drafts next season. Here's what else I saw around the league on Thursday night:
