October has come and gone. It is hard to believe but Daylight Savings Time is a thing of the past too. We will not look back at October for now but there are a few questions that have come via social media err Twitter. It is a time of year where teams start to play more games and this is about the time of year where injuries and frustrations really begin to mount.
Also, fantasy owners begin to notice rookies that have performed well about this time of season. Then there is inevitably questions on when they will hit the wall or if they hit it. Some rookies just do not at all. Then there are the hot and cold starts from some of the more well established names and of course there are always trade and waiver wire questions.
Now we bring you a few of those questions. It is time for the mailbag.
Fantasy Hockey Mailbag
Who do you think has been the most surprising rookie so far?
You can make a case for quite a few players in October but for me, Filip Forsberg has topped them all. The young Swede is the real pivot on that James Neal line and has been quite a godsend for fantasy hockey owners. This 20 year old has a goal and seven assists for the Nashville Predators and is a rookie leading +11. I will never understand why Washington gave up on him so quickly just for a fix but Forsberg just has an eye for setting up players. There were people that thought the youngster could be good but not this good, this fast. Yes, he did have a solid 34 points campaign in 47 games for the Milwaukee Admirals but the NHL is a different game and in a very tough division.
Filip Forsberg: 1 goal, 6 assists fueling nashville's 5-1-2 start. Martin Erat? Well #caps #preds
— Griffin (@ggriffiti) October 28, 2014
Again, that says it all for Nashville and Washington. Although the trade did allow the Capitals to make room for a couple rookies of their own. Either way, will Forsberg be this hot going forward? That is unknown. However, so far he has been so good. The bottom line is if he continues to get ice time with James Neal along with first line ice time, I say why not.
Do you ever remember this many key defensemen going down to injury this early in the season? Are there options out there?
Honestly, 2010 was a pretty high event year as far as injuries and looking back that year saw some huge losses among defensive corps. This year has been tougher in some ways because the fantasy hockey options that are "Plan B's" seem to be getting hurt also. The three biggest losses in October and November 1st have been Victor Hedman, Zdeno Chara, and Ryan McDonagh. Those would be a hand, knee, and shoulder injuries respectively. Each one is or will be out almost a month when all is said and done. The blessing is at least it happened now and not later. No one in fantasy hockey says that however.
Then most people scrambled to their Plan B's and they picked up Torey Krug or tried to trade for him in a lot of leagues. They even picked up Dougie Hamilton. Obviously Krug had his finger nearly slashed off by Zach Parise and Hamilton has had mixed results so far in Chara and now Krug's absence. It is tough to lose that big a chunk of your defense. Just ask Tuukka Rask how it feels right now. I also know that people tried to sneak James Wisniewski off the waiver wire or acquire him. That did not work either as he broke a finger last week. Even Jare Spurgeon was looking promising when even he succumbed to a trip to the IR.
There were others but I will spare you the gory details. If you still find a league that has Damon Severson on the waiver wire, go pick him up. Look at Ryan Ellis in Nashville if you have to. The options are there but honestly if you do not have a Plan C, D, or even E, there may be trouble on your fantasy hockey horizon. We have time for one more.
Are you going to be answering more daily fantasy hockey questions for the mailbag?
Yes I am! If you have the questions, I will answer them. Like I said in the beginning, I don't hide! Now DFS has been quite the challenge this year. October has been filled with more trap doors and pitfalls than I can count. However, I have pulled in a decent amount of money. Honestly, my money put out is not huge but occasionally I pick my spots in bigger cash or GPP tourneys. Conventional stack plays have not been working and on Sunday a lot of people had an early Los Angeles-Detroit stack of players that largely came up producing less than expected.
Whether it is a short (2-5 games), medium (6-9), or large slate (10+) of games, we will try to have plays from a variety of daily sites. Every site has different scoring rules so if you do have a question then please include the platform. There are lots of nuances to learn and over the next five months, we will try to answer those questions as well. Expect at least one DFS question per week here on the mailbag. One of the side questions I did get is which nights do you prefer playing?
Generally, I like playing on nights where there are few or a lot of games. Everyone is different but that medium slate of games fouls me up most of the time or I second guess myself.
Good luck this week and keep those questions coming. Thanks for reading!