NHL: Weekly Targets and Friday Lineup

by landsharkhockey Last Updated 2010-12-18 03:12:27

NHL Fantasy Overview and Friday Lineup

About the Writer: ‘Chewy’ aka Gary Wilson, operates LandShark Hockey, and has been helping others dominate Fantasy Hockey Leagues for almost 20 years now. Landshark Hockey provides fantasy hockey fans with daily news, updates, and draft strategy including the LandShark Hockey War Room for Daily Fantasy Hockey Lineup Help.

Before you set your hockey roster for Fantasy Sports Live this week, take some time to review who is giving you the biggest bang for your buck. This week, I’m going to dive in deep to look at who’s delivering the best fantasy points per game (fpp) by position. Then, I’ll go deeper and compare that to the player’s current cap hit to see who’s giving you the most points for your money. We’ll start in net, looking at goalies who have played 10 or more games so far:

Goalie

PPG:

1 Tim Thomas (BOS – $160) – 34.5 ppg
2 Jonathan Quick (LA – $130) – 27.3 ppg
3 Ondrej Pavelec (ATL – $150) – 25.6 ppg
4 Carey Price (MON – $136) – 25.6 ppg
5 Sergei Bobrovsky (PHI – $123) – 24.2 ppg

Thomas is in a world of his own, earning a ridiculous 34.5 points per game. If he’s playing, he’s worth the price, even at a high cost of $160. But is he the best value? Not quite. At this point, Brian Boucher is giving you the most for the money. Here are the top 5:

Value Ratio (ratio = ppg/salary):

1 Brian Boucher (PHI – $74) – 20.1 ppg —> .27
2 Antti Niemi (SJ – $50) – 12.6 ppg —> .25
3 Craig Anderson (COL – $86) – 19.3 ppg —> .22
4 M.A. Fleury (PIT – $92) – 20.5 ppg —> .22
5 Jonas Hiller (ANA – $98) – 21.6 ppg —> .22

Thomas isn’t far behind with a ratio of .21. He’s still worth the money, as goalies will earn the most of any position on FSL.

Defense

PPG:

1 Dustin Byfuglien (ATL – $72) – 13.8 ppg
2 Kris Letang (PIT – $67) – 12.7 ppg
3 John-Michael Liles (COL – $64) – 11.4 ppg
4 Zdeno Chara (BOS – $51) – 10.4 ppg
5 Nicklas Lidstrom (DET – $45) – 10.1 ppg

As you can see, defensemen earn significantly less than goalies in total fantasy points. And among defensemen, there are some clear leaders. Beyond these 5, no other player earns more than 10 ppg at this position.

As for value ratio on defense, some of the cheapest options tend to have a higher ratio. The top ratio goes to Mike Weber of Buffalo who has 0 goals and 0 assists on the season. His ratio is .32, given 3.2 ppg at a cost of just $10. Since you’ll want to be earning more than 3 fantasy points for a player, I’ll ignore anyone averaging less than 5 ppg.

Top Ratios over 5 ppg:

1 Ryan Suter (NAS – $30) – 8.5 ppg —> .28
2 Michal Roszival (NYR – $21) – 5.7 ppg —> .27
3 Dion Phaneuf (TOR – $24) – 6.3 ppg —> .26
4 Shea Weber (NAS – $27) – 6.9 ppg —> .26
5 Marc Staal (NYR – $28) – 6.7 ppg —> .24

As a rule, start with some of these guys who give great value for under $30 of cap hit. If you have space after filling up your offense, come back and upgrade.

Offense

PPG:

1 Sidney Crosby (C-PIT – $101) – 20.4 ppg
2 Steven Stamkos (C-TB – $91) – 17.9 ppg
3 Danny Briere (RW-PHI – $75) – 15.4 ppg
4 Daniel Sedin (LW-VAN – $72) – 15.1 ppg
5 Alex Ovechkin (RW-WAS – $83) – 15.0 ppg

No big surprise to see Crosby and Stamkos on top, but you may be surprised at how wide the gap is down to 3rd place. It’s also a bit surprising to see Briere settled in third on fantasy points per game, despite the fact that Briere isn’t even in the 50 of scorers in the NHL. It pays to examine total fantasy points. His goals, shots and +17 make him a top option on FSL.

When selecting your forwards, ratio is only relevant when you’re looking for a value pick or two, as you’re have to pay for anyone earning close to 15 ppg.

Top Ratios on offense:

1 Tomas Fleischmann (LW-COL – $35) – 8.8 ppg —> .25
2 Bryan Little (RW-ATL – $35) – 8.7 ppg —> .25
3 Nik Zherdev (RW-PHI – $31) – 7.7 ppg —> .25
4 Bryan Bickell (LW-CHI – $26) – 6.4 ppg —> .25
5 Drew Stafford (RW-BUF – $47) – 11.5 ppg —> .24

Two names worth noting here: Fleischmann has been on a tear lately, and thus you can expect his salary to climb shortly. For now, he’s a good value at $35. Stafford is also worth a peek earning 11.5 ppg for $47.

Enough with the crazy math…here are my picks for tonight on FSL.

My Roster

My Roster
Only four games on the schedule tonight, and none of them are terribly lopsided, making goalie selection a bit challenging tonight. I’m going with Miller as a safe pick. After loading up on Redwings on offense, I had plenty of cap space to add some talent on defense.

FSL – Friday – 10 Team – 575 Point Cap League

Finally, here are my weekly target picks across FSL. For each position I’ve included the Top Price player who is the most expensive at that spot, my Target players who I am trying to get on my lineup at a fair cost, and my Value picks which are players that are priced very cheaply based on what they are expected to produce.