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Brawny Black & Red, regular season, national televised games

Throwback Thursdays will include theme nights, music, and alumni appearances.

Before preseason we get to enjoy Fan Fest

The Hockey Holidays are almost upon us!

The Waiver Wire

Here along the Lake Learning how to utilize the waiver wire is essential to you becoming a successful ESPN FHL team manager, the waiver wire populates your watch list.

Constantly review the waiver wire for top-tier point producing players, players you want, players that are what you perceive to be on a “hot streak”, players put back onto the waiver wire from your competitors.

As soon as the draft is over is the time to utilize both the waiver wire and watch list, there will be players available that are good/very good point producers, but these types of players do not last long.

Once the creme de la creme of players are dispersed throughout the league you can keep track in an organized manner what good players are on the waiver wire at any given time.

At the end of the ESPN FHL season, review the moves statistic and you will notice that team managers that do not make any moves whatsoever are usually the bottom four or five teams of the league.

Players get hurt, get scratched, get suspended, lose confidence and produce less points, these types of players can be moved to the waiver wire and replaced with players that can contribute to your weekly matchup score.

Nothing is 100% and that includes making your allotted seven weekly moves successfully, for example you might not get back a player you planned on getting back that you placed on waivers.

The waiver wire is something you do not want to ignore, use it often and with a keen eye on the players that statistically can help you win an ESPN FHL championship.

GOALTENDERS

Here along the Lake Utilizing goaltenders in ESPN FHL is literally a gamble, and as you might know, the only “safe bet” is the wager you do not place, so what is a team manager to do?

Patience, waiting until the last two selections of your draft to obtain the goaltenders affords you the opportunity to gain an edge in acquiring positive point producing players that you might have passed on because of selecting a goaltender in earlier rounds.

Goaltenders are unique in fantasy hockey in that they are the only player on your roster to cost you points, you can literally watch your point total descend in real time during the games or even beginning your weekly matchup with a negative number.

If your netminder earns a shutout you will earn monster points, but if the same goalie won a 6-5 game you would be fortunate to come out of that with a point or two, and then if a game gets out of hand and your goaltender gets “pulled” you can count on receiving a negative point total from that player.

Okay, so now you waited and drafted two goaltenders last, now what? As soon as possible drop each goaltender and pick up two players from the waiver wire as you refer to your compiled lists, the key now is consistency, do not select or play a goaltender at all during the season.

It comes down to a team manager’s preference when it comes to utilizing goaltenders, during this upcoming ESPN FHL season I will analyze point totals positive and negative that top goaltenders earn for their team managers highlighting the highs and lows of these players.

NEXT UP:

The “Waiver Wire”…what is it exactly and how can it assist you in becoming a successful team manager.

Defenseman Radim Mrtka

Here along the Lake For some reason that I am not privy to, the Goo Goo Dolls were on stage to read Buffalo’s first round, ninth selection overall, and to stand next to the draftee, not the players family, friends, or mentors, I have never before seen a team use a locally famous rock band as a presenter.

This Czechian player is impressive size wise, 6′ 6″, 218 pounds, right-handed defenseman, reportedly only became serious about hockey in the last few seasons but has developed quickly with high potential and young enough to steadily improve.

The Sabres have also signed RW Quinn to a two-year contract, along with trading for defenseman Kesselring, highlighting that our GM is not sitting on his good intentions but getting things done and making the Sabres a better team.

Defensemen are Important

Here along the Lake Today we are going to create a defensemen list that will ultimately hold some of your most productive point producers on your fantasy team.

Beginning your Defensemen List (some players will be on your initial list)

Write down the two top blocking defensemen from each of the 32 NHL teams to create your 64 player defensemen list, a fine source of statistics to go to is statmuse.com to preview last season’s blocking statistics for each defenseman from each team.

Utilizing the Western Conference Pacific Division as an Example

Anaheim Ducks Radko Gudas & Jacob Trouba

Calgary Flames MacKenzie Weegar & Rasmus Andersson

Edmonton Oilers Darnell Nurse & Brett Kulak

Los Angeles Kings Vladislav Gavrikov & Mikey Anderson

San Jose Sharks Mario Ferraro & Jake Walman

Seattle Kraken Jamie Oleksiak & Adam Larsson

Vancouver Canucks Tyler Myers & Derek Forbort

Nevada Knights Brayden McNabb & Alex Pietrangelo

In the ESPN FHL point system players earn .1 (1/10th) of a point for either a shot or a hit, but you receive .5 (1/2) a point for each block, so 2 BLKs earns you 1 point, whereas you have to take 10 shots or throw 10 hits (or a combination) to earn 1 point.

We have now created two lists with approximately 128 players, of course some of the rushing scoring defensemen could be on your initial list, but you still have over 100 players names at your fingertips that you will have at the ready during the draft.

Tomorrow’s article will explain how goaltenders are a high risk / high reward point producing player and what that means to your fantasy roster.