Buying Low- Martin Hanzal

After missing two games with a lower body injury, Martin Hanzal is back in action and a viable fantasy option once again.

Analysis: Martin Hanzal has ten points on the year in just twelve games as well as thirty-nine shots on goal. Hanzal is and will continue to be a major player for the Yotes as his nineteen minutes of ice time suggests. He’s second to only Shane Doan on the Yotes in ice time among forwards and that trend will continue throughout this season.

His only fantasy weakness right now is power play points but his performance this year has been so good that you can live with his shortcoming. His penalty minutes remain around one minute per game this year(10 in 12 games) and are on par with his past two seasons. He actually leads all Phoenix forwards in penalty minutes even though he has missed a few games. Hanzal is a twenty-four year old center on the rise and this is shaping out to be a career year for him. He’s available in a little less than half of fantasy leagues due to his recent injury and now is certainly the time to buy him low.

Week Ten- Streaming Defenses- Jacksonville

The Jags have a week ten matchup with the 0-9 Colts.

Analysis: Jacksonville has only given up sixteen points per game over their last three contests. Considering those games were two road contests with the Steelers and Texans and a stellar performance against the Ravens, the Jags D is coming along nicely. Jacksonville is giving up the fifth fewest total yards in the league and the eighth fewest points per game as well. They are simply an underrated unit.

On the other side of the ball you have an Indy team that has just given up on the year. The Indy offense is only scoring fourteen points per game while ranking twenty-eighth in the NFL in passing yards per game. Although Indy quarterbacks have only thrown six picks on the year, their combined 69.2 passer rating is thirtieth in the NFL. Curtis Painter has thrown for over 100 passing yards just once in his last three games. Painter is only completing 53% of his passes and with tight end Dallas Clark out- it doesn’t look good for this offense.

Jacksonville’s defense is available in just about every fantasy league for the time being, but their week ten matchup will get a lot of attention from fantasy owners.

November 7th Weekly Release Notes

This week’s release notes are mostly fixes for various issues that cropped up over the past week.  However, before I get to those I’d like to mention how FantasySP is doing in terms of traffic.

Not too long ago I made mention that FantasySP had its largest traffic day ever in September.  Well, this has been surpassed several times in October.  In fact, in the past 30 days FantasySP has received nearly 750,000 pageviews.  That is about 100,000 more than last year during the same period of time.  Mind you, this is without the NBA season even starting.  Indeed, this is a historic month for FantasySP.  I’d like to thank you guys for using the site and spreading the word to your friends.  It truly means a lot and I value all of the feedback I get.

Now, onto this weeks release notes:

  • Fixed Manual Imports of rosters where the site did not grab their position and team correctly. (thanks wtapppp)
  • Fixed a source for accurate news collection (twice!)
  • Players no longer show up as listed on IR when searching for them.
  • The Winnipeg Jets are an NHL team, DUH. (thanks for pointing it out Scott)
  • Related stories on columns are now more prominent and more informative.

Last Call On Ondrej Pavelec

Winnipeg’s other goaltender, Chris Mason, is set to return to action soon but do not expect Ondrej Pavelec to miss many starts as he continues on his hot streak.

Analysis: Pavelec has been a top fifteen netminder over the last two weeks with a save percentage north of 93%. He has only allowed more than three goals once in the past four weeks despite playing on the road in eight of his last eleven games. He’s looked great against quality teams on the road, peroid. Considering Pavelec’s recent success it is confusing why he is only owned in half of fantasy leagues nationwide. With the season long struggles of Jaroslav Halak and Cory Schneider, it is time to pick Pavelec up.

Pavelec isn’t a sell high goalie like Minnesota’s Josh Harding, he is a legit top twenty-five goaltender now. He’s still only twenty-four years of age and as he continues to improve on a relatively young Jets team you can expect some consistency unlike his performances last year. The Jets have only played four home games this year and you just have to think that will work in Pavelec’s favor in terms of more wins down the road.

PPR Help- Roy Helu

Roy Helu caught fourteen balls Sunday afternoon against the Niners to lead all NFL players on the day.

Analysis: With seventeen targets and fourteen receptions Sunday, Roy Helu has grabbed the attention of all fantasy owners. Helu’s twenty-four total touches against the Niners dwarfed Ryan Torain’s two touches. Obviously, when Mike Shanahan is involved in any running back situation you cannot entirely trust any back but Helu offers some serious upside here. He’s available in over eighty percent of fantasy leagues and if Ryan Torain continues to underperform, Helu just may be a RB3 in standard leagues going forward.

It was clear even before the San Francisco game that Helu was their best passing threat out of the backfield. At the time Tim Hightower went down, Helu only had three fewer targets(12) than him on the year. Meanwhile, Ryan Torain only has two receptions on three targets for the year. With the Skins being down late in games often, Helu’s PPR value could be huge. He also carried the rock ten times Sunday and is sporting a 4.6 yards per carry average on the year. The time to act is now, Helu is now a force in PPR leagues or at least until Mike Shanahan decides otherwise.