Most Bruins’ fans’ most important fantasy is the one about the Duck Boat parade down Causeway Street that gets staged after Boston ends its Stanley Cup drought just shy of the 40-year mark.
However, there is a large contingent that also has a fantasy about winning a league with friends after drafting a team that actually doesn’t include members of their favorite team.
(I for one could never do that, in any sport, because I’d have to root for players not on my favorite team. How do you root for someone on the Yankees or Dolphins to help your fantasy team?)
Nonetheless, Yahoo! sports is out with its player rankings for the 2011-12 season, and only three Bruins players make the top 100. Tuukka Rask is the highest-ranked Bruins player at 41, while Marc Savard (60) and Zdeno Chara (65) also made it into this elite group.
One could definitely make the case that last year’s leader in save percentage and goals-against average should be ranked higher. With a stifling defense still in front of him and an improved offense to support him, Rask should be primed for a fantastic winter. However, Rask is the eighth-ranked goaltender.
I know as little about fantasy sports as I know about trading derivatives, but I would think Rask could at least get ranked higher than Florida’s Tomas Vokoun, if not Ilya Bryzgalov or even Martin Brodeur. I guess those of you in a league might be able to get Rask at a pretty discounted rate in your draft. Just try not to pick too many Montreal guys.
Oh, Char, always so literal in your reading.
Obviously you can pick just the players you like, but sometimes that runs counter to the idea of picking the best team and trying to win. It’s tough to balance.
I’m not into fantasy, but I have to ask: Why do you “have” to pick a player you don’t like? Pick the ones you do like. How hard is that?
Matt
I’ve only participated a few times in fantasy, much more fun than I thought it would be. From what I’ve observed, goalies who play more games are more valuable in most fantasy league settings, particularly on Yahoo. even goalies for a bubble team like Florida. In some settings you need goalies to play a minimum number of games each week, and it can be better to have to carry only 2 goalies and save space for higher scoring forwards. the other option is 3, sometimes even 4, goalies to get in enough games and score points. but its a tough act to pick and chose which nights to play which goalie, not to mention those goalies play half the games, so you are searching all over the net to find who the projected starter is, and that info doesn’t come out until day of game, sometimes too late in the day. So drafting a Vokoun, who will give you better than average stats on a consistent basis, might be better than drafting rask, who will only play about half the games (unless you think Julien will really sit Thomas for 60 games, no way!) it all depends on your strategy, league settings, and maybe even your place in the draft.
who cares – fantasy crap is gay.
I’ll admit three spots looks like a slight, but do the math. With 100 spots for 26 teams, the average would be a bit less than four. With a full 25 spots going to starting goalies (Rask included) that leaves 2-3 spots for other positions. Our best forward and best defenseman got listed. Presumably Seguin didn’t figure because he’s an unknown quantity at the NHL level.
There’s probably a built-in bias to these rankings towards offense, and the B’s offense was league worst last year, so it’d be tough to point to players whose production warranted a higher ranking. As for Rask, it feels like a lot of NHL watchers outside of Boston think he’s a flash in the pan. I guess we’ll see.