What you need to know to draft a fantasy hockey league today

Sean Allen

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Sean Allen

Special to ESPN.comSean Allen is a fantasy analyst for ESPN.com. He was the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hockey Writer of the Year. You can tweet him @seanard.

Victoria Matiash

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Victoria Matiash

Fantasy HockeyESPN.com Fantasy Contributor since 2010Part-time anchor at NEWSTALK1010Dec 29, 2023, 12:26 PM ET

While the NFL fantasy season approaches conclusion, and we remain months away from cobbling together our own MLB squads, why not scratch the fantasy sports-loving itch by launching a fresh NHL league? Whether it’s your first of the season, or a clean-slate do-over, come armed with the benefit of gauging individual performances to date.

ESPN’s Fantasy Analysts Sean Allen and Victoria Matiash chat about how they would – or wouldn’t – approach the fantasy draft differently if starting a league now.

Resources: Goalie depth chart | Daily lines | Projections | Play for free | Player rater | Most added/dropped | Mock draft lobby | How to watch on ESPN+

Launching an NHL fantasy league today, who am I now targeting first overall?

SA: For me it’s Auston Matthews and I’m not thinking about it for much longer than a second. He’s two steps above his closest competition for fantasy scoring this season. Fantasy points per 60? Matthews has 10.48 to Nikita Kucherov’s 9.51. Fantasy points per game? Matthews is at 3.72 to Kucherov’s 3.43. Those are massive gaps on rate stats.

VM: If you could guarantee me that Matthews – who plays the game hard – will compete in every match between now and April, I would fight you for him. But nobody can make that promise. So I’ll go with Kucherov and his 58 points and counting. The Lightning forward has never looked a more dynamic and dangerous and loose.

Who am I most disappointed in today – and avoiding – based on last season’s stats?

VM: I’m most disenchanted with Tage Thompson (recently out for personal reasons), who projected as a top-tier fantasy performer after last year’s explosive output. His average…


Source link : https://www.espn.com/fantasy/hockey/story/_/id/39121704/fantasy-football-draft-hockey-league-team-mid-season-advice-picks-avoid

Author : Sean Allen and Victoria Matiash

Publish date : 2023-12-29 17:26:52

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

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