Back in August, just before the season started, we put out the first fantasy contest in several years. The response was pretty impressive as we got 43 entries in just a few days (plus my own). With the season winding down and rec league ball hockey gambling sadly about to take a three month offseason hiatus, what better time to check-in on how this one’s doing.
Comments: A common theme you’ll see throughout is that people in this league are not particularly creative. Chalk is a huge theme in all the categories and perhaps none more than this one where Glattman deservedly picks up 34 of 44 votes, followed by Gelman who’s top ten in all time scoring and a perennial Player Of The Year nominee (although he’s never won the award). Chad, Lucas and Kevin round out the top five picks, although Kevin drafters are in for a world of hurt as he’s out for the season, leaving their pick at one of the top scoring positions in this contest vacant. Shua, Oskar and Jo each picked up a few votes. Amazingly James picked up none, which seems kind of rude, but then I checked out the scoring leaders and saw he only has five points all season so maybe the voters were onto something.
My Picks: Definitely not fading Glatt on this one and definitely not fading Chad in what was a fairly obvious comeback season after a tough spring followed by a summer where he had appendicitis. That said, Lucas is top three in scoring for the second consecutive season and probably will be in the winning entry.
Comments: Everett got the same exact 34 vote number as Glatt which would naturally lead you to assume that the same exact 34 people voted for each. But somehow that’s not the case as despite some variance in who picked whom (as you can see at the very bottom of this piece where everyone’s lineup is listed), they each ended up with the exact same vote tally. Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it was meant to be. Who knows. After that, we have a mix of names with Berkowitz surprisingly leading the way, perhaps because people assumed that a Hicks-led team would naturally be all offense (although if that was the case, they didn’t really draft that much of Hicks himself). Rather unbelievable distribution here in many senses but perhaps most insultingly when guys like Rory and Rys pick up zero votes but Tony picks up two and Yehuda picks up four.
My Picks: Everett is the easiest box to click in this entire poll as a top level forward who is not center eligible. After that, it gets a bit trickier. I went with two guys who did not get much ownership but are both top line players for teams that slipped under the radar a bit post-draft: Jared and Chris Affrunti. Currently ranked #10 and #16 in the scoring race, wingers aren’t going to win me the pool but a strong finish by both would put me in a good spot. Meanwhile anyone who faded Everett is basically already eliminated and should never play fantasy hockey again (or if they are, join a paid league that I’m in).
Comments: The chalk on this one is insane. The only surprising part is that more people took Brooke than Emma but otherwise it’s a pretty clear top two, particularly with Maddy often experiencing attendance concerns. Otherwise considering how many ladies play defense and how skewed the point distribution traditionally ends up, it’s not that surprising that 75% of the total picks went to the top three.
My Picks: I really gave a lot of thought to fading Emma on the basis that a pivot from what would surely be an insanely highly owned player would give me massive leverage over the field. But ultimately, I considered the possibility that she would smash projections so violently that I would never be able to make that ground up so I chose to go contrarian elsewhere. And thank god because she’s currently 2nd in overall scoring and on the verge of potentially setting records for female scoring thanks to the fact that she ended up missing almost no games this season. Brooke, the newest member of the blue leadership group, was obviously never going to be faded.
Comments: It’s unbelievable that like Ev and Glatt, Craig got exactly 34 votes but it wasn’t the same 34 people voting for all three. It’s like 34 is the resistance line on the equity chart. It makes no sense but somehow no one can seem to pass the 34 threshold. Kind of amazing. Also, although Bramson is near the top of the current defenseman scoring leaderboard, he did not declare before the season and thus was listed as a winger for the purposes of this contest.
My Picks: This was my spot to be contrarian as I faded both Craig and Simon (the obvious public picks) to take myself and Anthony Alleva, a 2026 rookie whose offense has improved in every successive season. There were values all around here with Mason, Danilo and Bedsy also offering great value. Inexcusable that I forgot to list Ariel although a) he does have insane attendance concerns now that he basically lives on a farm in New Jersey and b) no one wrote him in either.
Comments: With Shua listed as a center and thus ineligible for this category (even if one person wrote him in), the rookie field was fairly wide open. The crowd overwhelmingly went for Carter, likely due to his being picked in the 6th round (certainly the highest of everyone listed here) and Simba (likely due to his highly memorable name).
My Picks: A lot of strong choices here but I went with Carter and Morgan who I figured would garner almost no ownership but has been on LBS for five years now. The major wildcard is going to be Sam Bodner who I faded, assuming that his playstyle would not mesh particularly well on purple, but who ended up basically forcing a trade to Bruger King where he’s been on an absolute tear the past few weeks. The 15.9% of entries who got him before the trade are going to be extremely tough to beat.
Comments: The tandem choice was tricky only because Ryan was originally slated to miss over half the season and ended up only missing half. But also Campbell made every game except one that Ryan was out for and the other tandems somewhat underachieved when it came to point scoring thus far this season.
My Pick: I rated the Campbell/Ryan tandem in the top five of available assets pre-draft and thus it was an easy choice here. Like Bodner, going to be tough for anyone who faded them to win this contest, especially with Ryan on an over a point per game pace since his return from Europe.
Comments: This was the most interesting one in terms of varied responses and strategies. The final breakdown is somewhat tough to read in the pie charts but it went:
Campbell – 15
Tyler – 10
Sophia – 9
Will – 3
Carl – 2
Corey, Doug, Jeff, Cam & Wild Card – 1
Campbell picked up the most votes clearly as likely the most decorated goalie in the history of the league on a team that was slated to be a top team pre-season. But clearly it hasn’t worked out quite as well for red thus far and the 15 people who chose him are in big trouble. Meanwhile, Tyler is 2nd in GAA but Sophia leads all goalies in wins. It’s probably the toughest category to figure who’s going to actually win heading into the final week of the season.
My Picks: Obviously Sophia. Blue goalie of record. Highly underrated in this contest. Strong drinking game player. Easy choice.
PROJECTED OPTIMAL LINEUP
No one selected this lineup obviously and there’s still a week to go in the season but this is likely, as they call it in poker, the nuts:
CENTERS: Glattman & Lucas
WINGERS: Everett, Hootie & Bramson
LADIES: Emma & Brooke
DEFENSE: Craig & Alex
ROOKIES: Sam & Carter
TANDEM: Ryan & Campbell
GOALIE: Sophia
ACTUAL LINEUPS
