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Saturday fantasy hockey tips: NHL picks, matchups, more
7 p.m., TD Garden, Watch live on ESPN+ The Coyotes won’t lose every game this season. But they won’t win many either, including Saturday’s tilt with a much better team in Boston. Roll out all your favorite Bruins, including mid-tier fantasy forward David Krejci and value defender Hampus Lindholm, against an Arizona defense that was […]
Continue readingMaple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray (hip) out at least 4 weeks
Murray left the team’s morning skate earlier in the day with what coach Sheldon Keefe later called “groin discomfort.” Toronto is hosting Ottawa — Murray’s former team — on Saturday and Murray was expected to start. Ilya Samsonov will get the call now, with rookie Erik Kallgren recalled from the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies […]
Continue readingThursday fantasy hockey tips: NHL picks, matchups, more
Thursday’s 10-game slate features five teams competing in the second of a back-to-back set. It means we could see the other half of some of the league’s tandems on just Day 3 of the (North American) campaign. Resources: Goalie depth chart | Injuries | Schedule | How to watch on ESPN+ | Sign up for […]
Continue readingLapsed fan’s guide to the NHL season: Trades, signings, more
When the Colorado Avalanche hoisted the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2001, it signaled the end of an NHL season that was a return to normalcy but still notably impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. After a truncated 2020-21 season with intra-divisional play, the NHL’s 32 teams — including the debuting Seattle Kraken — […]
Continue readingGoalie talk: Who to draft from the Avalanche, Bruins and more
ESPN Fantasy analyst Sean Allen: Give me Francouz. I do believe that if Francouz hadn’t lost a year and a half to knee and hip surgeries over his career, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. He has the skills of a top starting NHL netminder, but just hasn’t had his proper moment to shine. […]
Continue readingNHL season preview: Power rankings, best- and worst-case scenarios and bold predictions
The 2021-22 NHL season is being called a return to normalcy. Last season was an unprecedented one for the NHL due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Four geographically realigned divisions, including one solely comprising Canadian teams; teams playing only opponents within those divisions; and a new playoff format that eschewed wild-card teams. But it ended just […]
Continue readingLingering questions for all 32 NHL teams heading into training camp: Goaltending, lineup, injuries, more
But now that fall is officially set to begin on Thursday, it’s also time for training camps around the NHL to open, as we look ahead to opening night of the season on Oct. 11. To help get you ready for the next few weeks — as teams decide on which players make the roster, […]
Continue readingBouncebacks: Can Chychrun, Pastrnak, Hamilton find their past scoring?
While expectations are one thing, I wanted to quantify exactly what we are looking for here. Taking the fantasy production put up by all NHLers over the past three years, I took the average fantasy points per game (FPPG) and per 60 minutes (FPP60) from the first two years and looked at the difference compared […]
Continue readingFantasy hockey dynasty ranks: What will the NHL look like in 2027
Well, we know their age. We also know what kind of production they have put up in the past. But beyond those two criteria, we don’t really know a whole lot. We can certainly guess a lot. In January 2018, ESPN asked me to do the first one of these dynasty rankings. While I didn’t […]
Continue readingNHL teams with holes remaining after the first wave of free agency
Well, some teams are. Others have been weirdly silent, unwilling to make moves to clear cap space, or simply aren’t doing much when more is required. There are also teams that fall in the middle, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs. They’ve made trades and signed players, but are they truly better off? The Leafs […]
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