Blocked Shots category

[teepee1]

Hi all. Blocked shots has been introduced to my league this off season. I don't really know whether this is a category that is easily researched and whether players are consistent from season to season.
I have Carlson who wasn't slated as a keeper but he looks to be the no 1 shot blocker in the (fantasy relevant) league over the pas few years.
Interested to hear from people with this category in their league and how the research and consider it.
My D is Phaneuf OEL Letang Carlson and McDonagh. I can really only keep 3.

[Savvy1982]

This Chart: http://www.sportingcharts.com/nhl/st...atistics/2013/

Will give you the leaders in blocked shots over a particular season - they also keep a record back to 1990.

This should give you a pretty good idea of which players consistently rate highly in this category:

I don't know what all your league tracks, but lets go with goals, assists, and blocks to make it simple:

Phaneuf: 8G 23A 156Blk
OEL: 15G 29A 80Blk
Letang: 8G 42A 109Blk (These are from 2010-11, the last time Letang played 80+ games)
Carlson: 10G 27A 177Blk
McDonagh: 14G 29A 131Blk

Now I'm sure you also include categories like Hits and Shots, so this isn't a perfect comparison...

But it does show that it boosts the value of Carlson and Phaneuf quite drastically.

Is it enough to keep them over your other defencemen? Depends on your point structure. If a blocked shot is worth the same amount as an assist, then yes - but you'll have to do your own math on that.

[teepee1]

Thanks mate, yeh all standard cats plus hits and PIMs. Hmmm interesting.

[horrorfan]

Hi all. Blocked shots has been introduced to my league this off season. I don't really know whether this is a category that is easily researched and whether players are consistent from season to season.
I have Carlson who wasn't slated as a keeper but he looks to be the no 1 shot blocker in the (fantasy relevant) league over the pas few years.
Interested to hear from people with this category in their league and how the research and consider it.
My D is Phaneuf OEL Letang Carlson and McDonagh. I can really only keep 3.

I suggest you put your league details in FantasyHockeyGeek and see how they rank them. They have their own formula to come up with a snapshot ranking of player value in a specific setup. I think they have at least a couple years' worth of past data (maybe more). You can also sort by category to see players' strengths and weaknesses.

What I find valuable is how you can compare different players in the same position to see how specific categories affect their value. However, take the rankings with a grain of salt - they are mainly snapshot to give you an idea but of course depending on how you value specific categories, your strategies etc things could change.

For example, defensemen with very high hits and blocked shots with little else will still be given a relatively high ranking, but as these categories tend to be a bit easier to find than offense, then they are not as valuable. Your value will be in looking at a few balanced players (like on your roster) to see how they compare to one another. Using this and other factors (e.g. who would more likely to be sought after in the draft) could help you put it into perspective.

[Pengwin7]

re: Blocked Shots.
I've had really good success with this category in my leagues. I don't believe I have EVER, (ever!) finished outside of the top two in this category in any league that's had it.

Notes:
1. Blocked Shots come from your defenseman. Period. (No duh, right?!) Sure, there will be some "leader" among forwards, but the 60-70 BkS that a guy like Boyd Gordon provides (last year's forward Blocks leader, 89) is nothing compared to the 200+ that the elite defensemen can give you. And with those Blk defensemen, you can also get some Hits, some PIM, even decent +/- if you snag them from good teams, like Kevan Miller of BOS.

2. There is some arena bias. I don't weight too much on this, but it is worth noting.

3. Outside of using stats, the guys that are going to get the most BkS log the most minutes and especially log SH kill time. There are a lot of shots, especially point-blasts on PPs, so the defensemen that are zoning in front of the goalie will block a lot. The bigger defensemen, bigger legs, will also (by size) block a lot. I mention this because when a player comes into the league, the way in which a team uses him + his size will give a good indication (pre-stats) that he'll block a lot of shots.

4. Purely for quantity, look to the worst teams. The worst teams give up a lot of opportunities and shots... and therefore will have most opp to block shots.


Pengwin's Predicted NHL Blocked Shots Leader for 2014-2015:
Josh Gorges, 233 Blocked Shots.
Fairly big-legged guy that will log a LOT of minutes for BUF. Will play almost all SH kills. Bad team, that will give up a lot of shots.

[doulos]

I've yet to be in a league that tracks this stats but my undertanding is that there was some divergence in tracking it between different arenas. Now, overall that shouldn't matter TOO much over the course of a regular season, unless of course certain players play all of their home games at one of the arenas that does a poor job of it. Or is it another stat that I am thinking of, perhaps Hits?!