Fantasy Hockey Analysis

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: The Fantasy Five - Week 5

#1 Give 'em a Look

We’ve been waiting for Michael Frolik to break out for a while now, sure it’s only his third season but we love this kid’s talent and think he’s in a great spot as he’s already a front-line player in Florida who sees a lot of ice-time. Things weren’t looking good to start the year as he had only two assists in his first seven games before being a healthy scratch in game #8. But he’s returned with a vengeance and has 4+4=8, plus-8 and 25 shots in five games since… grab him for the short-term and enjoy the ride but we think he makes a great long-term addition as well.

Others worth a look: Derick Brassard (Clb – C), Brian Boyle (NYR - C), Erik Karlsson (Ott – D) and Brian Elliott (Ott – G)

In the first four years after the lockout, Scott Gomez averaged 68 points & 251 shots a season… so when he put up 59 points & 180 shots last year during his first season in Montreal, there were a few people that were pretty disappointed. Well those people have nothing to complain about as those of you that drafted Gomez this year hoping for a rebound have been rewarded with only three points in 15 games so far and only one assist in his last 11 games. He’s one pace for only 120 shots this year, so not sure if he’s nursing an injury but usually guys don’t forget where the net is overnight.

Others worth a boot: Alex Frolov (NYR – LW), James van Riemsdyk (Phi – LW), Pavel Kubina (TB – D) and Chris Mason (Atl – G)

Last week we recommended TJ Oshie as a pick-up as he started the year hot with 10 points in his first 10 games and is one of our top breakout picks for this season… we knew it couldn’t last but we’re not sure what we did to deserve this as Oshie broke his ankle on Wednesday night and is likely out for a few months.

New Tampa Coach Guy Boucher said he wanted to give both his goalies a look early in the season to see what they could do and he’s stuck to that as he’s rotated Mike Smith and Dan Ellis with neither goalie seeing more than two starts in a row so far. Through the first 14 games both goalies have made eight appearances and both have four wins but Smith carries an ugly 3.43 gaa & .881 sv% whereas Ellis is a tidy 2.11 & .924. Ellis has shutouts in two of his last three starts and if Boucher decides to scrap the rotation then look for Ellis to start carrying more of the load.

Here’s another site that we recommend you check out as it’s a great resource… Hockey Pool Geek is where you go to get your geek on as its loaded with all types of tools for fantasy hockey GMs. Their League Rankings tool is especially invaluable as it allows you to enter the details of your league and your projections and it provides an aggregate ranking across positions… so no more wondering if you should grab a LW early or how long to wait until you take a dman.