scoop

Upvoted and posted

Yukon offers 1 million Can't really make a strong pitch right now because I'm not near computer. But today is my birthday so you should totally pick me.

Am I really down to 15th? I was like 7th yesterday. When are these FP rankings from?

IT'S ME!!!

mist4keeeeeeee

for Maxwell

Fantasy Risers and Fallers 2/11-2/17 Although I'm no longer running the VHFL, I still like to look at what's going on there. Last week I wrote a few articles about it, and I'm thinking I'll start a weekly article where I just talk about a few of the players on the rise and a few players on the decline to try to increase the hype for the VHFL. Or maybe it'll just be a one time thing, I don't know. I have a spreadsheet of data that I'm keeping up, but that is for my eyes only, though maybe at the end of the season I will release it to the public. It really isn't all that interesting, just a bunch of numbers, but those numbers allow me to write this article, so I need them. So how about I get into it, starting with the bad, in no particular order. Disclaimer: I am only considering forwards and defensemen, not goalies, for this article Falling D Jeff Hamilton - Seattle Bears After the first 19 games (for each team), Hamilton was the eight highest scoring player. He was second among defensemen, averaging 3.7 fantasy points/game. He had been living up to his 9.4 average draft position. Several Seattle players have actually seen a decline, as they haven't been seeing as many huge blowout wins lately. Hamilton has not dropped off into obscurity, of course but he did fall all the way to 24th overall and 6th among defensemen. F Pietro Maximoff - Seattle Bears Pietro Maximoff is still a fine fantasy payer, but in this recent set of 13 games, his production dropped off from the first 19. I suppose it's more likely a case of the team not being able to keep up with their strong start, but Maximoff saw the largest decrease in fantasy points per game, going from a second-best 4.3 down to 2.5 (during the 13 games). He still ranks eighth overall, but if he doesn't pick it up again he could settle a bit further down as the season goes deeper. D Hector de la Riva - Retired Okay, so I didn't want to just write about another Bear (though I could've, with Bogdan Podarok and Felipe Rodriguez being good candidates), so I decided to just do this, especially since it will be relevant later. Hector de la Riva was mistakenly signed to Davos and played in ten games, amassing a whopping 27.2 fantasy points. After that point, he was removed (as he has been retired for a good amount of time now), and therefore scored no points since then. Nobody drafted him so I suppose no harm done. Rising D Pavel Komarov - HC Davos Dynamo This is why de la Riva is relevant: his removal from the Davos roster has skyrocketed Pavel Komarov's fantasy production. Komarov is now blocking a lot more shots, which has bumped him up to seventh in fantasy points, second among defensemen. He had the second most fantasy points during the last 13 games, averaging 4.7 per game. He had been a respectable fantasy player during the first several games, but he is quickly climbing to top player status. I would not be surprised to see him as one of the top three players by season's end. F Phil Shankly - New York Americans Phil Shankly had a notably bad rookie season, and his sophomore year got off to a similarly poor start. While he has always been racking up the hits, his offensive production was never quite there. He has been turning it on a bit more lately, and his fantasy owners should being noticing the difference. He nearly doubled his per game production in fantasy en route to climbing from 57th to 30th. This was the highest jump in the rankings. D Lee King Snatch - Stockholm Vikings Like Shankly, Lee King Snatch is another case of a player who struggled through the first 19 games, and has produced more to what we'd expect from him during the last 13. He is still just 48th in scoring overall, but he was 27th during this recent set after being 58th prior. What's notable about Snatch is that, unlike Shankly, he was a mid-round fantasy pick, averaging at 15.7 (Shankly's ADP was 26.0). He was a big letdown for teams who had picked him (going as high as seventh in one draft), which includes someone in every group (he was one of five defensemen picked in every draft).

I thought about titling this "All eyes on Maxwell as Americans streaking" for the jokes but really it hasn't been all about Maxwell so I didn't

for mist4ke

Okay, so maybe to say he is a disaster is a bit of an overstatement, especially when you consider that there are several teams that picked him that are doing just fine, but he's certainly not the best fantasy goalie. Holik was one of only two goalies to be selected in every draft (Rhett DeGrath being the other), and he was the first goalie selected in every single group. His average draft position was the seventh highest at 8.3, going as high as five and no later than 11. Despite this, he ranks sixth among goalies in fantasy points (though the gap for goalies is not gigantic, which is why it not super punishing for those that did pick him). Ahead of him are the following (in order): Ilya Kopralkov, Rhett DeGrath, Apollo Skye, Dmitri Dadonov, and mist4ke. Now, as I mentioned, the gap between goalies is not gigantic, but the fifth ranked mist4ke is closer to first than he is to sixth, so at least relative to goalies, Holik is doing pretty bad compared to where you would expect him to be. And it's pretty clear why. Let's look at Rhett DeGrath and Jakab Holik. They are in similar situations: playing for good teams where they don't face nearly as many shots as some of these other goalies, but they win a lot of games. The 30 additional saves that DeGrath has account for just 2.1 FP of his 22 point lead he has over Holik. Holik actually had five more assists, which are worth a point each, and they are equal on wins. The difference is in the shutouts. Holik isn't getting a lot of shutouts, with just three so far, while DeGrath is at eight. For the goalies on the good teams, shutouts (which are worth five FP) are essential for a good fantasy season, because the number of saves that players like Dadonov and mist4ke will make really add up. mist4ke has nearly a 15 point lead on Holik because he has a league-leading 1172 saves (which is over 500 more than the number of shots Holik has even faced). mist4ke does also have two shutouts, just one fewer than Holik, though he has just seven wins.

The Americans are now winners of ten in a row, their longest streak of the season, pushing them into first place in the standings as we approach the halfway point of the season. Two of these wins were against the Bears. They were the first two meetings this season between the two teams, and these wins helped New York leapfrog Seattle in the standings. The playoff race in the North American Conference is expected to come down to these two teams vying for the bye, though Quebec should be easily dispatched in the first round by whoever has to play them. And, if last season is any indication, winning the Victory Cup does not necessarily equate to putting up a good fight in the playoffs, as the Americans sent the Bears home in five games after Seattle won the regular season. I have no idea where I'm going with this line of thought, so I'll move on. Along with playing Seattle in that set of ten, the Americans faced Helsinki for the final three times of the season. The Titans had been giving them problems, particularly early on in the season, but the Americans seem to have figured them out. With all eight games in the books against them now, winning those final three has evened up the season series between these two teams. Helsinki has been struggling a bit as of late not just against New York, as they have fallen to third in the European Conference after a very strong showing early in the season against New York as well as other top teams in Seattle and Stockholm. for Maxwell

Helsinki wins the series 3-2 Also I will apply!

rollin

yayaya

Komarov with 9 hits, 9 shots blocked; Jarvi with a hat trick.. my fantasy team likes this.

not ez

ez

Yeah I had a good number of hits today. And with mist4ke having his best sim by far, I'm fine with only getting one point in this blowout.

-1 for me tho lol

Keep it up, me. Would've loved to steal that point, more for New York's sake, but oh well. Can't expect much better than this

Got em

A significantly worse save percentage.

lol

Anyone except New York, Seattle, and Stockholm. Though Toronto can't afford to pay you the $4 million that is their current offer.

That is correct