Year in Review (2008): Part 1

With the NHL 2007-2008 regular season wrapped, this marks the end of yet another fantasy season for many fantasy owners. If you are anything like me, you are still glued to the playoffs, hoping to catch the telltale signs of the next breakout star. However, in order to improve, you have to reflect on the mistakes and triumphs learnt through this season to build on the next. It is with that, that I present to you, the Fantasy Hockey Cafe’s Year in Review for 2008.

MVP – The best players of their position. Period.
(All rankings are compared vs. their respective positions and not vs. the rest of the league)

C – Evgeni Malkin made a strong case for league MVP after Sidney Crosby went down for 30 games. Malkin silenced even the toughest of critics by ending up with 1st in Goals, 5th in Assists, 11th in +/-, 4th in SoG, tied for 1st for PPP, and 5th in PIMs (Centers who scored more than 40 points). This display of 6/6 scoring category dominance remains an absolute rarity. No other elite fantasy player had so many questions coming into the season yet ended up improving on their stats, all across the board.
Honorable Mention: Pavel Datsyuk.

LW – Alexander Ovechkin wins this one hands down. First in goals by a landslide, subsequently taking the points races not only amongst LW, but the rest of the league as well. He was 3rd Assists and +/- amongst LW. He also shattered the new default scoring category, SoG, by outshooting Zetterberg (next closest in the league) by nearly 90 shots. To put this in proportion, this was 25% of the shots Zetterberg took all year (358). Although weak on PIM, he dominated 5/6 of Yahoo! default scoring categories.
Honorable Mention: Henrik Zetterberg.

RW – Jarome Iginla, Mr. Consistency, took advantage of an off year by other top fantasy RWs to take this top spot. He ended up 1st in Goals, 8th in Assists, 1st in +/-, 2nd in PPP, 4th in PIM (RW scoring more than 40 points), and 1st in SoG. Arguably, more dominating in his position than Malkin, Iginla was the fantasy equivalent of baseball’s Hanley Ramirez, having no weakness in his fantasy game. With an injured Heatley/Alfredsson, a disinterested Hossa, and a declining Jagr, this season’s performance by Iggy will be one to remember.
Honorable Mention: Dany Heatley.

D1 – D2 – Nicklas Lidstrom and Dion Phaneuf easily took the honors here in this spot. Choosing the two as MVP of defense was a lot easier than choosing either of them to be the #1 guy on D. Lidstrom led the league in with a +40 and 70 points to boot. While missing six games, Lidstrom also ended up 5th in SoG, a category that Phaneuf dominated with 263 on the year. It was Phaneuf’s defensemen leading, 17 goals and 183 PIM, not to mention 5th in defensemen scoring with 60 points, that gave him the edge over the likes of Gonchar and Rafalski.
Honorable Mention: Sergei Gonchar, Brian Rafalski, Brian Campbell, and Zdeno Chara.

Goalie – Evgeni Nabokov tops Martin Brodeur for this prize. However, pending your league’s scoring, Brodeur could easily be more valuable. I simply assumed Yahoo! default scoring. Nabokov had two more shutouts and an ever so slightly better GAA (by .03), as well as recording 2 more wins in the same amount of starts. However, Brodeur faced nearly 300 more shots in the same amount of games started, while having a substantially better save %. Okay, the difference between .920 and .910 is not enough to demote somebody, but when you’re talking about the cream of the crop, we have to nitpick.
Honorable Mention: Martin Brodeur.

Next Edition: Draft Day Bargains

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