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NHL season preview: Power Rankings, X factors, predictions
More Teams. More Games. With NHL opening night on the horizon, take a look back at some of the best moments from last season. (0:58) After a wild offseason that included multiple superstars joining or leaving the Calgary Flames, opening night of the 2022-23 NHL season is fast approaching. ESPN will be your home for […]
Continue readingFantasy hockey draft guide: Nine breakout defensemen to watch
There is a break in the descent at age 30 and 31, which could possibly be attributed to a particularly elite crop of defenders coming through that age group (Roman Josi, Erik Karlsson, John Carlson, Alex Pietrangelo and Victor Hedman are all age 33 or 34 for the coming campaign). But the telling piece of […]
Continue readingFantasy hockey preview: How to draft your defensemen
While a total of 33 regular defenders averaged 2.0 fantasy points/game in ESPN’s standard game in 2022-23, only seven hit or exceeded the 2.5 mark. Which means, if you’re not able to draft an elite talent (pair of examples below) early on in your draft, there’s little harm in waiting a bit, while stocking up […]
Continue readingHockey Diversity Alliance’s Akim Aliu: NHL ‘late’ on inclusion
Whatever happened, Aliu wondered, to the league announcing a partnership with the HDA to address the same issues three years ago? And why, the HDA asked in a scathing statement Wednesday, is the NHL essentially duplicating what it has been doing by funneling millions into programs at the grassroots level and introducing hockey to at-risk […]
Continue readingHow Golden Knights disrupted the NHL, won the Stanley Cup
The first time Brayden McNabb thought about the Vegas Golden Knights winning the Stanley Cup was when owner Bill Foley spoke it into existence in Year 1. “Playoffs in three. Cup in six,” the defenseman said with a grin, recalling the owner’s words back in 2017. Then the Golden Knights went ahead and made the […]
Continue readingFantasy hockey rankings: Power play roles to watch
Brandon Montour (up one spot to No. 158) has been dazzling on the point for the Panthers for the past few weeks, sitting sixth in fantasy points among defensemen. Hampus Lindholm (up eight spots to No. 189) has been nearly as good for the Boston Bruins and sits 11th among defenders. So why are they […]
Continue readingNHL Power Rankings: 1-32 poll, players who must improve
For this week’s NHL Power Rankings, we identified one player for each club who must step up in the coming days and weeks. How we rank: A panel of ESPN hockey commentators, analysts, reporters and editors rates teams against one another — taking into account game results, injuries and upcoming schedule — and those results […]
Continue readingFantasy hockey rankings: How to plan for injuries and returns
Brad Marchand, at this time last week, was listed to miss another 16 games, returning after the month of November was done. Late Wednesday, his timetable became “before Thanksgiving.” Then, on Thursday, he laced up and scored two goals and one assist in 18 minutes of surprise action. The Bruins gave Marchand the night off […]
Continue readingSaturday 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 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 […]
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