Category: Hockey History 1917-2023

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.

The Dog Days of Summer

Here along the Lake Warm sunny weather can be a nice distraction from the hectic snowy hockey days ahead, but now is the time to invest some thought and energy in preparedness for the 2025-26 ESPN FHL season.

To begin successfully it all starts with the draft, you can opt out and let the ESPN FHL draft server select for you and it will select the top players available each round, but I would advise against that.

My supposition is that if you are interested in becoming a successful ESPN FHL team manager, then you are already a solid hockey fan which affords you valuable insight into making your own draft selections.

Each year I create just one team and win or lose I manage my team the best that I can all the way through the season, and I hold up my team for scrutiny as an example throughout to highlight what I find to be useful tips and information.

PREPARING FOR THE ESPN FHL DRAFT

Step One: Create your first player list in this fashion; write down the top two statistical leaders (forwards and defensemen) from each of the 32 NHL teams.

You now have in your hands a list of 64 players you want on your team, naturally half of them will be selected by the other team managers in your league’s draft.

In the Pacific Division these are the players I might draft if available:

Anaheim Ducks RW Troy Terry & C Mason McTavish

Calgary Flames C Nazim Kadri & LW Jonathan Huberdeau

Edmonton Oilers C Leon Draisaitl & C Connor McDavid

Los Angeles Kings RW Adrian Kempe & C Anze Kopitar

San Jose Sharks C Macklin Celebrini & LW William Eklund

Seattle Kraken LW Jared McCann & C Chandler Stephenson

Vancouver Canucks D Quinn Hughes & RW Brock Boeser

Nevada Knights C Jack Eichel & RW Mark Stone

Enter the NHL website and select each team’s roster/stats link to determine last season’s point leaders for each team, following my example you can go through each division methodically to compile your list of 64 players.

Additionally, I would like to suggest utilizing “paper” and not just your “device” while participating in the draft, reason being that unless you have plenty of RAM to have multiple tabs running with a large, wide screen and are able to quickly manage them, hard copies in plain sight will assist you greatly.

Now, depending on what position you are selecting from your ability to quickly scan your lists and make a strong decision on who to select in the 90 seconds allotted to you each round factors in.

There are more tasks involved with lists that we will address after collecting all the lists that we will create, tomorrow we will create our defenseman list and why they are considered some of the most important players you can draft in the early rounds.

Stanley Cup Champions…again

Here along the Lake A bit boring and a bit disappointing but this year’s Stanley Cup Finals have come and gone with nothing different, same two teams played for the Cup and the same team won as last year.

Panthers 5 – Oilers 1 (en x2) (SCF 4-2 Florida) Referees Rooney and Hebert made sure no Edmonton power play would save the day as neither team had the man advantage save one pair of offsetting penalties halfway through the first period, and of course a game misconduct with a couple minutes left in the game.

Edmonton took 20 SOG over the first two periods and found themselves down 3-0 heading into the third period, then the Oilers with six and half minutes remaining in the game and series pull the goalie and promptly get scored on, not once but twice into the empty net.

And just to avoid the shutout Edmonton pops one in just 20 seconds or so after the second empty net goal against to make the final a 5-1 score, Florida played well and had the better goaltender, they deserved to win.

Personal Note

Watching a player that arguably plays dirty be awarded the Conn Smyth Trophy, well that just adds to the overall disappointment, additionally I hope that the Cup engraver will get the names in proper order this year and not add some businessman’s name after the player’s names like last season.