Buying Low- Dougie Hamilton

Dougie Hamilton got back on track with a goal and an assist against Buffalo after a six game scoreless stretch.

Analysis: You have to be patient in fantasy hockey and especially with defensemen with tons of offensive upside. Dougie Hamilton is only nineteen years old but he is a special player. He’s been well over a point per game player in the OHL over the past two years and his transition to the NHL has been as expected. Hamilton has 6 points in 12 games this year and he is averaging nearly nineteen minutes of ice time per game. He’s getting his fair share of power play minutes as well, however, Hamilton’s biggest fantasy flaw is that he has zero penalty minutes thus far this year.

Hamilton is one of the most heavily dropped fantasy players at the moment but it may be a mistake dropping him so early in the season. His offensive upside is tremendous and his plus/minus will improve when Boston starts to score more(2.6 goals/game). He’s available in 30-50% of fantasy leagues but when he catches fire again you won’t be finding him on the wire.

Jeff Green Is Surging

Jeff Green is getting tons of minutes over the last three weeks coming off the Boston bench.

Analysis: Green is averaging 31.6 minutes per game over his last week of action. In this five game span he’s averaging 14.0 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 1.4 BPG and he’s shooting 47% from the field. He’s always been the athletic small forward/power forward that can contribute in the rebound, steal and block departments but other aspects of his game are coming along. He’s shooting 92% from the stripe over the last week and is shooting 81% from the stripe this year, up 4% from his career average of 77%. With his increased playing time his rebounds are starting to creep back up into the five per game range. We also cannot forget that he does hit nearly one three per game.

Jeff Green is available in 50-75% of fantasy leagues nationwide. Any player with his type of athleticism that is getting thirty plus minutes per game makes an intriguing add. He’s contributing in seven of eight fantasy categories and over the last two weeks he is outperforming Kyle Korver, Martell Webster, Taj Gibson and Tiago Splitter.

Last Call On Slava Voynov

Slava Voynov has been playing some major minutes for the Kings as his stock continues to rise.

Analysis: Voynov is plus-7 this year on a team with a negative six goal differential. To put Voynov’s plus-7 rating in perspective, Drew Doughty is minus-10 this year. Not only is Slava’s plus/minus a strength so are other areas of his fantasy game. He’s receiving about 26 minutes of ice time over his last four games while his seasonal average is a solid 21 minutes per game. Voynov’s success should not come as a surprise, he posted a plus-12 and 20 points last year in limited ice time and in just 52 games.

This year Voynov has a very respectable 6 points in 11 games played. He is getting secondary power play minutes but he’s not going to put up tons of points. The only areas he can hurt you is penalty minutes and power play points but outside of those areas he’s fine. Voynov is not just a deep league add, he’s a twenty-three year old coming into form on a team that really needs him at the moment. He’s available in 40-50% of fantasy leagues nationwide.

Stock Rising- Tyutin, Visnovsky

Fedor Tyutin appears to be having a career year and Lubomir Visnovsky is two games into his NHL return after his “issue.”

Analysis: Fedor Tyutin is getting 23 minutes of ice time and plenty of power play minutes this year but he’s had that his past four years in Columbus. So… what’s different this year? Well, the twenty-nine year old is simply having a career year. Tyutin has 10 points in 13 games this season which is fourth most in the NHL among defensemen. He’s not a big penalty minute guy nor does he shoot a ton so he can hurt you a bit in those areas. His points production will decrease a bit but he has taken his game to another level this year. As of today he is outperforming Shea Weber and Brent Seabrook.

It doesn’t matter what you think of Lubomir Visnovsky as long as you can clearly see he still has some tread on those thirty-six year old tires. Yes, he had a down year with the Ducks last year but two years ago he was a 68 point defenseman with a plus-18. He has 2 points in 2 games with the Islanders so far who are one of the better offensive teams this year. Visnovsky already has over nine power play minutes as well so pick him up if he’s available in your league because he racks up points in bunches on the man advantage.

NHL Fantasy Assistant & NHL Trade Analyzer Updates

Fantasy hockey season is just starting to heat up now that it is approaching mid to late February.  I wanted to make sure that hockey fans got the same feature updates that the NBA and NFL already received.  This long awaited update is for you!

The changes shown here apply to the Fantasy Assistant, Hockey Trade Analyzer, and the newly released NHL Start/Sit tool to help with start/sit decisions.

  • Fantasy Assistant has the ability to look for the best available LW/C/RW and D.
  • When searching for waiver wire suggestions, the Fantasy Assistant has support for the following categories: goals, assists, powerplay goals, shorthanded goals, shots on goal, hits, wins, and shutouts.
  • More in depth stats are shown under waiver wire suggestions for all players.
  • Much improved accuracy for player ratings, including 6 new statistical categories that are now analyzed.
  • NHL Start/Sit tool has been launched to help you to set lineups.

As always, if you need more categories for the fantasy assistant or notice any bugs please make a comment here or email me directly.