18skaters

Can A Robot Find Your Streamers?

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) What Is This? I’m trying something new here: using a bot to identify “streamers” for fantasy hockey. What you’ll find below are robo-picked skaters who play on 2 or more “off days” over the next week, and who are on a roster in less than 60% of Yahoo leagues. Is ThisContinue reading “Can A Robot Find Your Streamers?”

Breakout Goal Scorers

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) This week I’m taking another look at skaters who are under the age of 24 and have some “breakout” goal scoring potential. The last time I wrote this type of article I identified Dylan Cozens as a skater to watch (click here to read that article). I got lucky there as DylanContinue reading “Breakout Goal Scorers”

What’s Going On With Auston Matthews?

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) This week I’m looking at the leading goal scorers in the NHL and I have my eye on one in particular: Auston Matthews. Coming into this season I expected Matthews to be the best goal scorer in the league, and my personal skater projections still think that should be the case.Continue reading “What’s Going On With Auston Matthews?”

Bangers With Benefits

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) Most fantasy hockey leagues reward more than simply goals and assists. Three “peripheral” stats that typically have some value are shots, hits, and blocks. Today I’m going to look at these three stats and identify which skaters offer an attractive blend of bangs (hits and blocks) with offensive benefits (shots … and therefore maybeContinue reading “Bangers With Benefits”

Hot And Cold On The Power Play

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) In this article I’m going to look at some of the leading point scorers in the NHL and ask whether they’re too hot or too cold on the power play. The data for this article was pulled from 2 sources: (1) data for the 2022-2023 season was pulled from Natural Stat Trick andContinue reading “Hot And Cold On The Power Play”

Biggest Regression Candidates

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) In this article I’m going to talk about the skaters who have scored either too many or too few goals during the last 20 team games. WARNING: I’ve got bad news about one of your favourite skaters (probably). I also have some good news. Let’s get into it. The data for this articleContinue reading “Biggest Regression Candidates”

Rising Scorers Who Are Under-24

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) One of the most rewarding things you can do in fantasy hockey is snag a rising star before someone else in your league grabs him. Unfortunately, this is also one of the most difficult things to do in fantasy hockey. Frankly, I tend to stay away from unproven players because there’sContinue reading “Rising Scorers Who Are Under-24”

Who’s Getting More Time-On-Ice?

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) This week I’m looking at skaters who are getting a bump in Time-On-Ice (“TOI”). Stating the obvious here: more TOI means more opportunities to register the counting stats that we want in fantasy hockey. The data for this article were pulled from Natural Stat Trick and include games played on or before NovemberContinue reading “Who’s Getting More Time-On-Ice?”

Early Season Hot And Cold Goal Scorers

Mark Barbour (@18sktrs, patreon.com/18skaters) In this article I’m going to look at some interesting cases where a skater’s expected goals differ from his actual goals. My approach relies on something I call individual expected goal differential, or “ixGd”. Not sure what that is? No problem – it’s all explained below. Note: the raw data used forContinue reading “Early Season Hot And Cold Goal Scorers”