NHL Thursday: Intro to DraftStreet NHL for the NFL Player

by landsharkhockey Last Updated 2012-01-05 17:15:44

With fantasy football season coming to an end, daily fantasy players may be looking for another option to fill the void. Jumping into the NHL action can be challenging, as you may not even know where to begin. This week, I’ll walk you through my thought processes as I compose what I hope to be a winning roster for head to head competition on Draftstreet this evening.

After catching up on last night’s scores and fantasy results, my first stop is to check the injury/suspension report, to make sure I’m not wasting a spot with an inactive player. Countless sites offer this information. I prefer TSN, as they keep it up to date and all one nice page. A few recent notes to stash in your head:

• Christian Ehrhoff (D-BUF) – out indefinitely
• Rene Bourque (CGY) and Daniel Carcillo (CHI) – suspended
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – out with a shoulder injury
• Shea Weber (D-NAS) – still out with concussion
• Jaromir Jagr (PHI) – out a couple weeks

Take a quick glance at the fantasy headlines as well to see if anything may impact tonight’s action:

• Matt Read (PHI) – looks to be taking Jagr’s spot on the top line with Giroux tonight. Given his low salary ($8.7k) and fine rookie production this season, I’ll jump ahead and pencil him in on the right wing right now.
• Lars Eller (MON) – pounded home 4 goals last night. At $5.7k, he’d be a nice value pick if he can keep that rolling. Montreal’s off tonight, so move along.

Finding a Goalie

Now the real work begins. In football, I start with the QB and work it out from there. In hockey, it all starts in net. It’s the most expensive, and most lucrative position, so you have to get this one right. To start, I pull up a site such as Leftwinglock.com to get a read on who the likely starters are for each game. Nine games to choose from, which means 18 options on the table. Roughly 1/3 of the goalies have been confirmed as starters at this point, so I’m going to have to come back tonight and double check my guy will be in net. From here, I pluck out four or five of the guys with the best shot at earning me points. Here’s who I’m targeting:

• Tuukka Rask (BOS) vs CGY – The Flames don’t pose a huge scoring threat, and Rask has been gold all season. The Bruins have the best GAA in the league. Always a point-producer.
• Martin Biron (NYR) vs FLA – The Rangers aren’t far behind the Bruins in shutting down offense this season. Biron is penciled in to get the start, as New York has back to back games. The Panthers have lost the punch they packed earlier in the year.
• Antti Niemi (SJ) vs COB – The Sharks are 3rd in the league in GAA, and Niemi has been on fire lately. He faces the weak Jackets offense. Anyone vs Columbus is worth considering. Niemi is almost too hard to pass up.
• Jaroslav Halak (STL) vs EDM – Halak and the Blues are a different team under Hitchcock. Halak has been stallar lately and faces the Oilers without the Nuge.

Now that I have some options in mind, I check the salary hit and see that Rask is just too pricey ($25k). Niemi and Halak are moderately priced at $19k. Biron is slightly cheaper at $18k. Based on this information, I’m leaning towards Niemi as my best bet tonight. Before entering my pick, I’ll scroll down to see if there are any bargains I can’t resist. As it turns out tonight, there is. Way down at the bottom, you’ll find Ilya Bryzgalov at a mere $7.7k. I realize he faces the Hawks, which isn’t a good thing, and he’s been down on his luck, but this is just too good of a price to turn down. After all, he’s got something to prove after being benched for the Winter Classic. That extra cap space will come in handy.

Filling the D (If you must)

Continuing from the crease out, I move on to the defense. It’s time to hold your nose and take what you can get without spending much in the process. Defense just doesn’t give you much return on investment, so I like to get this out of the way so I know how much I have to play with up front. Scroll to the bottom and look for something of interest. A couple of names worth considering:

• Niklas Hjalmarson (CHI) – $3.2k – ton of blocked shots. 1.58 FPPG
• Jonathan Blum (NAS) – $3.4k – youngster has been generating points since his benching.

After that I have to scroll way up to the $5k range to find some names that jump out. Guys like Hainsey, Leddy and Marc Staal, fresh off a return to action. I’ll keep that in mind if I find salary to spare when I’m done. For now, throw Hjalmarson and Blum into the lineup.

Targeting Teams

Before picking specific forwards for my lineup, I take a step back and look at the matchups from an offense perspective. Certain teams and games are more likely to generate high scoring affairs than others, based on matchup and current scoring trends. I’ll pick two or three teams to try and load up on.

• San Jose – The Sharks get to feast on the Blue Jackets tonight
• Tampa Bay – The Sens have allowed more goals than any other team this season. Load up on Lightning tonight.
• Boston – The Bruins scored 6 last night and face the Flames this evening. Calgary has had some high scoring affairs lately.
• NY Rangers – The first place Rangers face the struggling Panthers. Clemmensen is likely to start for Florida and his GAA is over 3.
• Toronto – The Leafs score in bunches and they face a weak Winnepeg defense who surrendered 7 goals last night.

Most nights, only two or three teams jump out, but tonight, I’ll look to spread the wealth around these lineups.

Right Wing

I already rostered Read (see above), so I’ll look to fill the other RW spot next. I’ve got about 12k to play with for my remaining players. Gaborik is in that range, but he’s dried up lately. St. Louis is riding an 8-game scoring streak. He’ll do nicely at $12k.

Center

Moving on to the center position with plenty of cap space, I’ll look to add a superstar. Steven Stamkos (TB) and Claude Giroux (PHI) both come in around $17k. Most nights, I’d be forced to choose one or the other. Since I went cheap in net, I’ll splurge and take both, leaving me $30k for the remaining three spot.

Left Wing

I haven’t added a Shark yet, so I’ll turn to Patrick Marleau at a reasonable $11.6k. He had a rough stretch in early December, but is back on track with 9 points in his last nine games. With $18k remaining and two spots to fill, I’m looking to Rangers rookie Carl Hagelin, who has been on a roll lately playing with Brad Richards. He’s priced at 9.8k.

Flex

That leaves me with a respectable $9k to spend on the flex position, so I’ll dial up that list now. Starting at 9k and working down, a few names pop out:

• Nathan Horton (BOS)
• Milan Michalek (OTT)
• Nazem Kadri (TOR)

I’m tempted to run with Horton, but looking way down the list, I’m liking rookie Benn Ferriero (SJ), who has been getting some time with Thornton and Marleau recently in San Jose. He’s got goals in two straight and I just can’t pass up the opportunity against the Jackets. He’s value priced at just $6.4k

Revisiting the D

With my value pick at Flex, I’ve freed up $2.7k to upgrade my defense. Dropping Hjalmarson from the lineup leaves me with $5.9k, plenty of cap to roster a decent option on defense. The best option available to me at that range looks to be Alex Goligoski (DAL), so I’ll drop him in there and call it a day with a mere $198 left under the cap.

Here’s my final roster: