great post, great analysis, i'm glad you're not in my league
Some notes... and I'm only severely critical because I am with most young/new writers... just trying to help them along.
Based on this thread, I'm assuming you aspire to be a fantasy hockey writer.
[Taking criticism is paramount for a writer... if you want to make it.]
1. I think MOST pools these days are by position. So... you have to consider that most of your readers are going by that thinking. I was in 8 pools last year and only two (that I created) were forwards without positions.
2. James Neal is a RW.
3. Last year the Western Conference, the lower scoring conference, only played against the Western Conference. If you do an analysis of conference scoring you'll see the Eastern scored significantly more. I think defenses and goaltending are better in the West... so it would not surprise me if several Western forwards kicked it up a few points this year - such as... the Sedins.
4. Daniel Sedin may have been the 11th LW last year by points-per-game. OK. But how do you forecast the coming year? Do you really think Vanek or Ladd or Kunitz or Pacioretty will score more than Daniel Sedin? Moulson?
http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.h...ewName=summary
[Zetterberg is a C, IMO... Rick Nash is a RW, IMO.]
Anyways... please don't take all of this response as negative.
It was a really good piece... but IMO, Daniel Sedin LW is still "elite"... as a generic fantasy description.
Good post.
Outside of Crosby, I don't see anyone putting up 100pts after 32. I doubt Malkin, OV, Stamkos will hit 100pts after 32 years of age.
Also, this post simply comes down to your definition of ELITE. In fantasy hockey ELITE might not necessarily be only the guys who can hit 100pts. I would say it's the top 5% of the players owned in your league. (My 5% is as arbitrary as your 100pts threshold but I think most would agree we're both "right").
My league has 12 teams x ~23 forwards = ~276 forwards on team. The top 5% would be the top 13 players.
The game is becoming very defensively focused and goalies are getting bigger and better.
Getting near 100pts will be very difficult for even the eliter.
But I digress......
YES - The Sedins are in for a decline for several reasons as you mentioned.
Great post. Glad I traded Henrik 2 years ago and with those smaller peices and picks I turned him into Tavares and Galchenyuk.
REP for you!
http://twitter.com/robsintheshed
12 Team - H2H Keeper League - 25 Players - 13 Keepers
(G, A, P, +/-, Hits, PPP, SOG, W, GAA, SV%)
Keepers
C: Tavares, Benn,
LW: Galchenyuk, Landeskog, .
RW: Pominville, Little, Oshie, Yakupov
D: Subban, Vatanen, Fowler
G: Price, Bishop
I appreciate the feedback. I'll have to keep positions in mind in the future.
Is Neal a RW? I just go by NHL.com, which lists him as a LW. So does Yahoo and Hockey-Reference.com. So I never realized he wasn't one. But if Yahoo and other fantasy hockey sites count him as a LW for fantasy hockey, then Neal should be mentioned in comparison to Sedin. Same with Zetterberg and Nash. I could draft two of them and have them only occupy left wing slots, so they should be considered.
For this year, I think Hall, Moulson and Kunitz outscore Sedin in points. Vanek, Sharp and Lupul do if healthy. And there will probably be a surprise player or two ahead of him (maybe a Whitney or Evander Kane or Eriksson). So I don't think Sedin finishes in the top-five left wingers for points (especially if Neal, Nash and Zetterberg can count for left wingers in fantasy hockey). Points-per-game is tougher to gauge, since an injury to a hot streak can skew it, so I'll just keep it at points in my predictions.
Writer of the weekly Top 10 column.
12-team Keeper pool, straight points for forwards & dmen. Goalies get: 2 points per win, 3 per shutout, 1 point per assist & 1 point per shootout loss.
League champ in 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2022.
Top 8 forwards, 5 dmen and 2 goalies count.
We keep 15 players (any position) plus two rookies.
Forwards: Panarin, Ovechkin, Kopitar, Stamkos, Tuch, Rust, Marchessault, Pavelski, Miller, Bertuzzi, Stone, Kakko, Brown, Stankoven, Kovalenko
Defence: Hedman, Fox, Matheson, Thrun, Jiricek
Goalies: Kochetkov, Talbot, Vasilevskiy, Campbell, Schmid