Fantasy Hockey Analysis

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: The Fantasy Five - Week #16

#1 Give 'em a Look

After last year's monster 54 point, 165 PIM & 208 shot season, we were very disappointed when David Backes started this year flat with only 1+3=4 in his first 20 games. Well he's turned things around since then as he's gone 8+13=21 in his last 25 games and has even ramped it up further with six points in five games under new coach Davis Payne. In addition, in five games under the new coach, Backes has fought three times so those PIMs will help out standard league GMs.

Others worth a look: Alex Burrows (Van – W), Guillaume Latendresse (Min - W), Joni Pitkanen (Car – D) and Jonas Hiller (Ana – G)

Usually we avoid Sheldon Souray cause he has a hard time staying healthy and while he did miss 16 games already this year with a concussion, its more the fact that he's been uncharacteristically awful when he's been in the lineup that's the real problem. Depending on your league, dropping him outright might not make sense as he's still a good source of PIMs (on pace for 122) and shots (on pace for 207)... but he's not helping you in terms of points as he only has one assist and is a minus-9 in his last 10 games and only has four PP points to show for the entire season. Look to deal him and take whatever you can get.

Others worth a boot: Mike Fisher (Ott – C), Sean Avery (NYR – W), Michal Neuvirth (Was – G) and Nikolai Khabibulin (Edm – G)

Seems that 39-year old Teemu Selanne's bones getting weak as he just returned on Saturday after missing 17 games with a broken hand and now has a fractured jaw after taking a puck to the face on Wednesday night. The busted jaw is expected to keep him out for 4-6 weeks but he won't miss too many games as the two week Olympic break is coming up.

Lets try to sort out what's going on with the Islanders, this should be a doozie... so franchise goalie Rick DiPietro is healthy again and played his first game in over a calendar year last week and while he probably wants to jump right back in there, and his contract suggests that he should, the Islanders are currently locked in a heated race for a playoff spot and sit tied for 8th in the Eastern Conference right now. The only reason these guys are anywhere close to the playoffs is Dwayne Roloson whose 18-7-6 record is pretty remarkable on a team that's only one game over .500. Look for them to ease DiPietro back in as they can't afford not to play Rollie. Marty Biron is the odd man out in all this as he'll sit and wait for a trade, if trading him is even possible.

We're on forecaster.ca through theScore pretty much all day as that's our go-to site for player profiles & data and they've got some pretty cool tools as well... check out this one which shows you how each team has distributed its PP time throughout the season and over the past five games... great stuff.