Latest / Banger Management - Fantasy Hockey Podcast / Top 10 Trap Players to Avoid for 2025-2026 (Part 1)
Transcript
- 0:00Barbara Bound Bound Bang or Management Fantasy Hockey
- 0:02podcast. Woo.
- 0:04Wow. Whoa.
- 0:08I was not thrown off this time and I'm very, very happy about
- 0:12it. For all the first time
- 0:13listeners, they're gonna have a big surprise when they see how
- 0:17our intro is, but. Like jump scare?
- 0:21Yeah, yes, I think it's pretty elite.
- 0:24It's very natural and authentic if you ask me.
- 0:27Yeah, those are definitely noises I make regularly, Yeah.
- 0:35Yeah, where do you make those noises?
- 0:37Don't worry about it. I was like debating how long I'm
- 0:43gonna have to, you know, wait until Kevin drops his first.
- 0:47Oh, God. And I think this is record.
- 0:50Time have to wait a little longer.
- 0:51Wait, you thought that was it? Yeah.
- 0:54You got more where that came from.
- 0:56Not yet. Alright, just let's get it to
- 0:58it. Exciting times.
- 1:00Welcome in to Bangor Management, the fantasy hockey podcast with
- 1:03Jake, Josh and Kevin. Y'all are doing good.
- 1:07I presume one way closer to the season.
- 1:09I'm doing so deleted. I'm doing so so very well.
- 1:17Good. Right now I'm trying to not say
- 1:20a word. Sorry.
- 1:22Anyways. Yeah.
- 1:26Nothing wrong with well, good. Alright, today we're going to be
- 1:29doing our top 10 trap players to avoid next season.
- 1:35You could follow us on Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you get
- 1:38your podcasts. We are on TikTok now so give us
- 1:41a follow there and Discord. So and Reddit.
- 1:44Could Reddit everywhere all the social medias where you could
- 1:47find it in the Lync tree in the podcast description.
- 1:50We're trying to trying to get as active as possible.
- 1:55Help us help you, Yeah. You guys really leave me hanging
- 1:58today. She.
- 2:01Is this how it's gonna be? If only we had a little crickets
- 2:06effect or something. That we could do.
- 2:08Maybe next episode. Honestly I've been trying to
- 2:10think of a joke for the past like 20 seconds so I can't speak
- 2:13and think at the same time. I don't have that skill.
- 2:16I wanted to say something about how this is like Fetty Wap's
- 2:18favorite episode because like Trap Queen or something like
- 2:21that. But like, land it there's.
- 2:24Totally something there. Well, I remember Quick tangent
- 2:28summer 2015. I thought that every Fetty Wap
- 2:32song was the same song. Did not know the difference
- 2:36between Tribe Queen 679 or anything.
- 2:38Like I just thought he was like like a Michelin star chef with
- 2:42all the cooking he was talking about.
- 2:43Long behold, that's not what that was about.
- 2:48So yeah, culinary enthusiast Fetty Wap would love this
- 2:52episode. Yeah, Josh, wanna kind of give
- 2:55us a little bit of the framework over here.
- 2:58Yeah. OK.
- 2:58So obviously everyone knows there's some traps in every
- 3:02draft, guys that you're gonna end up regretting for the rest
- 3:05of the year. And you look back at the end of
- 3:07the year and you're like, why did I fall for that trap?
- 3:10And it's guys that usually, you know, will look kind of shiny.
- 3:12They'll have some either historic, like, goodness, or you
- 3:15think this is their breakout year.
- 3:16It's going to be different, something like that.
- 3:18And then just massively, yeah. And then they just massively
- 3:21disappoint you. So we're here to try and help
- 3:24you avoid those traps and laugh as your league mates fall into
- 3:27them. And and also I just want to
- 3:30preface that with this is all basically like price related.
- 3:34Obviously any, any player is draftable at a certain price,
- 3:39but these guys were talking about today are usually going to
- 3:43be going way higher than we would want them to go.
- 3:46So hence making them a trap. Exactly.
- 3:49So we're going to be discussing one, why we think they're
- 3:52trapped and then two, will talk about their ADP compared to
- 3:54where we would be happy drafting them.
- 3:56So like Evan said, all these guys are draftable for the most
- 4:00part, but but you don't want to take them too high.
- 4:03So should we dive right in? Let's you're right into it #10.
- 4:08Should start with a few honourable mentions and then OK.
- 4:10You know. You're really, really.
- 4:12Sorry, I saw you, I say. Up for failure.
- 4:14There I was. So excited too.
- 4:17So a few honorable mentions. We've got Alexi protists Matt
- 4:21Duchene, Thatcher Demko, UC Saros, Mark Stone and Steven
- 4:26Stamkos. So all these guys don't like the
- 4:28top, the top 10. Yeah, I didn't crack the top 10,
- 4:33but these are all these are all pretty big traps in my opinion.
- 4:35I mean, out of all these names I think Syros is probably gonna be
- 4:38the one that goes the highest. Potentially Saros or Stamkos I
- 4:43feel like. Yeah, there's definitely gonna
- 4:45be people hoping for the Preds resurgence.
- 4:49And I think it's hard for me to imagine them doing worse than
- 4:52last year. Well, it's hard to be worse than
- 4:55like third to last. Say it's hard to it's hard to be
- 4:57worse than last year, but but still like where I'm looking,
- 5:00where Soros is going right now, and I'd rather have a lot of
- 5:03these forwards that are around his ADP.
- 5:06Yeah, for sure. All right, Kevin. #10.
- 5:12At #10 we've got Evander Kane who is now on the Vancouver
- 5:19Canucks. His stats from last year are 0
- 5:21games played in the regular season.
- 5:24Why? His ADP right now on Yahoo is
- 5:28around 1:16. So in a 12 man draft, that's
- 5:31around round 10. And while yeah, and some reasons
- 5:35for why he's a trap, one his age, his injury history, the
- 5:41fact that he's on a bad team and the fact he probably will have
- 5:44bad deployment, what do you guys think?
- 5:47I mean I just think first of all his ADP is definitely way too
- 5:51high and and let's also say this is for bangers league
- 5:54specifically because I don't think he goes as high in non
- 5:57bangers leagues. In a non bangers I don't think
- 5:59he's even draftable. No, we, we are Bangor management
- 6:02after all. But I think if you look at, I
- 6:04mean, we're analyzing this with Yahoo specifically because I
- 6:07think it's the most popular hockey fantasy app, but they
- 6:10have them set up for just over .5 points per game.
- 6:13And roughly I think they're making him almost a AAA triple
- 6:18double like they have them at almost three hits a game and and
- 6:24like 2.5 ish shots a game. And I don't I don't think he
- 6:28hits that. Like like you said, this man had
- 6:29like 5 surgeries last year and for everything lower body, I
- 6:35don't know if he's going to be the physical guy that we
- 6:36remember. And also his deployment is just
- 6:39not going to be on the elite end, right?
- 6:42So I don't expect him to get top tier minutes.
- 6:44I expect him to be hurt a lot and I can see him being like,
- 6:49you know, playing second fiddle to like a key for Sherwood.
- 6:52Like, Sherwood's the big guy and and Kane is like, you know, just
- 6:56there. The only good thing, the only
- 7:02possible good thing I could say about Kane this year is that he
- 7:07has historically been a better player on a bad team.
- 7:12San Jose was not very good when Cain was there.
- 7:16Like it was especially towards the last few years that Kane was
- 7:20on the San Jose Sharks and that's when Evander Kane was at
- 7:23his best. So that's the one positive.
- 7:27But we. Also much younger this year and
- 7:29not a bionical man at that point.
- 7:31Yeah, and we we all despise Vancouver for their fantasy
- 7:35potential this year. I think we all agree Alize
- 7:38Peterson himself can have a bounce back.
- 7:39But at the end of the day, like this is not going to be a high
- 7:41scoring team. That's why I Thatcher Demko is
- 7:44and the honorable mentions too. We don't think he's gonna be
- 7:46very good. So there are like I consider
- 7:50Nashville a better bounce back candidate than the Canucks as an
- 7:53example. I don't think Kane's gonna be
- 7:55good at all. This is probably easily the the
- 8:00the one that's like the most clear to avoid of any player
- 8:04this year. I won't be drafting Evander Kane
- 8:05anywhere unless pins are worth more than goals.
- 8:09Yeah, I mean, I would take like Kane, like in like the last few
- 8:13rounds of the draft, like I would take him round 16 plus in
- 8:19a Bangers league just on the off chance that, you know, like when
- 8:22you're taking your dart throws, you know, like he has the
- 8:24history of being a bangers beast, so why not take A chance
- 8:26on him? But you're not taking him around
- 8:2810. Like that's way too early.
- 8:30Yeah, like I said, I think it really just depends on on your
- 8:33lease settings, first of all. But if you're in a bangers
- 8:36league that has hits Pimms, I can see him being obviously the
- 8:41most valuable and elite like that.
- 8:43But I don't I don't see him getting, you know, this high-end
- 8:47deployment or, or anything like that.
- 8:49And I think it's the players around him in drafts that are
- 8:52the big question. Like if you're looking at in
- 8:54general, you can get like, I mean, I don't know if there's
- 8:58gonna be mostly, but an hourly he's going right next to Zach
- 9:00Hyman, which is wild, right? But hourly has Pimms.
- 9:04Our leak has shorties, hits blocks.
- 9:07So it's a pretty deep lead. But that's nuts.
- 9:10But you can get a guy like Zach Bolduc over Evander Kane.
- 9:14I feel like that's the range that maybe you can discuss him,
- 9:18but I don't know what you guys think.
- 9:19Zach Bolduc or Ravender Kane? Probably take Bolduc over Kane.
- 9:24I'll try to take the the Habs fan bias out of it as much as I
- 9:30can. Like if your league has Pimms, I
- 9:32think I'd still give candy edge. Just cause no pins.
- 9:36He's gonna play no pins and taking Bulldog for sure.
- 9:39OK, what about what about Let me give you one more name or two,
- 9:42Chris Kreider or Evander Kane? Crider.
- 9:46Yeah, Crider. Because the only value chain has
- 9:49is if he actually hits, and if he's a walking double double,
- 9:52he'll have value in in most banger leagues, but at the
- 9:55bottom of your roster. Because he's not gonna
- 9:57contribute points that much. Like he's not gonna get good
- 9:59time on ice. And you need time on ice to
- 10:01contribute to all those categories.
- 10:03I could see him being one of those guys who like, I could see
- 10:05him still hitting and like pimping.
- 10:07But I think the shots is where he's going to get.
- 10:10He's on a bad team. You need to have good teammates
- 10:12to get you more shots, and you could have ice time to get good
- 10:15shots and you have to not be, you know, walking on crutches.
- 10:18So yeah, I think that the shots is the biggest thing that's
- 10:21gonna take a hit. And you can pick up anyone as a
- 10:23stream who can get you some pimps and some hits on any
- 10:25streaming week. So why are you drafting him in
- 10:27the 10th round or wherever? You know, so that's if he had
- 10:30the shots, the hits and the Pimms, that makes him someone
- 10:32who's worth, you know, drafting later on and holding on to your
- 10:35team all year. But if he only has two of those
- 10:373 specifically if shots is the ones he doesn't have, that's the
- 10:39hardest to get on on the waiver wire, then he's just a streamer
- 10:42in my opinion. Yeah, like he he's just going
- 10:46before so many relevant guys that I don't want to touch him
- 10:49there. Yeah, we'll move on to the next
- 10:51one. I just want to say, like last
- 10:53week #10 for our breakout candidates was Morgan Geekie,
- 10:57who is almost 100 spots below Evander Kane in the ADP.
- 11:02And I think that's like a way better pick.
- 11:04I would take over any day of the week.
- 11:06Yeah, by far. I would take you 100 pics before
- 11:09Evander Kane. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
- 11:14Can I give one, Kevin, or do you have another one?
- 11:16You can go for it, but we should probably move on.
- 11:18Shane Writer Evander Kane. Oh.
- 11:23I don't know. That's a tough one.
- 11:25I'm not too high on right but. Honestly.
- 11:28Heart throws. I feel like right as you gotta
- 11:30pick right for the potential, but I could like if you tell me
- 11:34you're under Evander Kane, I'm drafting with like the last pick
- 11:36of my draft and he rounds out my my, you know, 20 roster lineup
- 11:41at the end of my bench. Like, I'd probably rather that.
- 11:44Yeah. OK, let's move on to. #9.
- 11:51Alright #9A name that I feel like has appeared here ever
- 11:56since he got traded. Jonathan Huberdeau.
- 11:59I don't know how he could be a trap, because how do people keep
- 12:01falling for this, right? But you know, he's cooked guys's
- 12:05111, so that's like ninth round. And last year he had 81 games
- 12:11played, 62 points, 23 power play points.
- 12:13Like, you look at that and you're like, oh, maybe, maybe he
- 12:16could find his way again, you know?
- 12:18But at the end of the day, he's 32 years old, he's on a mid team
- 12:22in Calgary and he doesn't get any peripherals.
- 12:25So if he doesn't become that 100 point player again, which he
- 12:28won't, then he's just writing off the name value of what he
- 12:30did in Florida. So this is the type of thing
- 12:32where I don't know how year after year people fall for it.
- 12:35He'll have his hot streaks. Like Kevin, you drafted him
- 12:37super late last year and he started off the season really
- 12:40like strongly and you were trying to ship him, which was
- 12:42the correct. Yeah, no one bit, which was also
- 12:44the correct move. And it ended up dropping him,
- 12:46which was also the correct move. So that's kind of what I see a
- 12:49Hoover though, bringing to you. He'll bring you like a the hot
- 12:51stretch and if you can flip him and convince someone that he's
- 12:54the 100 point guy then you know you pulled it off.
- 12:56That's great, but I wouldn't take him anywhere near his ADP.
- 12:59I'm just still shocked at how high his ADP is.
- 13:02Like, I think it's because, you know, when platforms do their
- 13:06projections, they have to obviously take into account
- 13:09deployment and somebody's got to be having to get the points,
- 13:11right. So he's gonna be line 1P1 on a
- 13:13Calgary team. He'll probably play like 20
- 13:15minutes a night or over that. So they have to give him some
- 13:19points. And if you look at what Yahoo
- 13:20hasn't projected for like, they haven't projected for just under
- 13:2460 points and a third of its points being on the power play
- 13:27like does Huber. Does pretty much exactly what he
- 13:29did last season. Right.
- 13:30That's exactly what he did last season.
- 13:32But he's going to get you no peripherals besides probably one
- 13:35point something shots per game. And would you rather have Huber
- 13:39dough or, you know, in some rankings, Lynn Hudson's going
- 13:43right around him, like. That's crazy.
- 13:45Give me Lynn Hudson, you know. Not even close.
- 13:47Kent Johnson is going around him.
- 13:49You know you can get Dylan Cousins.
- 13:50Like, these are all guys that I'd much, much rather have over
- 13:54Jonathan Huberdeau specifically and especially in bangers
- 13:58leagues. Yeah.
- 13:59So I feel like he's the type of player that his name value is
- 14:01keeping him so high but. I wonder how many years it'll
- 14:05take before that, like, fades, you know, it's already been
- 14:08like. I think this is the last year.
- 14:09Meaning this is it if he really like has another bad year.
- 14:12We, we always talk about deployment here and deployment
- 14:15is so important. Anybody that's on line 1P1 is
- 14:18worth, especially in the deep leagues that we play in.
- 14:21Like, it's a name that you have to have on your watchlist and
- 14:23that you have to consider having in your lineup, right?
- 14:26Yeah. So I think he's going to be
- 14:27there for points on either week, but you're gonna hate the
- 14:30consistency because you're gonna have where you guys does nothing
- 14:33and he gets you like one shot every two games.
- 14:35And then you're gonna have a week where he gets like 3 games
- 14:37in a row where like 2 power play points and be like, oh, sick.
- 14:39You know? So it's just not worth having on
- 14:42the lineup. I'd rather have consistent
- 14:43production from that roster spot and not pay that price.
- 14:46I have Jonathan Hoover doing my lineup.
- 14:47Yeah, exactly. I'd rather have just a guy who's
- 14:49gonna pitch in for some backpacks consistently then get
- 14:52me a couple of points like every other week.
- 14:54If we have any listeners who used to be like huge fans five
- 14:57years ago and you stopped watching hockey and then you
- 15:00coming back this year for fantasy hockey because it's it's
- 15:03very fun. So congratulations to listening
- 15:05to this podcast. You're making a great choice.
- 15:07But also, if you see Kirill Marchenko one pic below Jonathan
- 15:12Huberdeau in your ADP and you're like who's this guy?
- 15:15Take him. Over here please.
- 15:17You're not take Uber to overkill Marchenko, who is one spot ahead
- 15:21of Marchenko. That's crazy.
- 15:25How late can I go to like to pick a guy like have hovered
- 15:29over a certain guy? Would you rather have hoober
- 15:31dough or laferriere? I take laugh every year
- 15:36honestly. Really.
- 15:38I mean, honestly thought that was, yeah.
- 15:40I I don't want either of those guys on my roster, to be honest.
- 15:43But at least he's young. He's like on a.
- 15:46Probably decent marching. Team.
- 15:48Yeah, I think Marchment, who knows what he does on his.
- 15:51I would take Uber though. Brilliant Shen.
- 15:55Shen. Brayden Bangers League branches.
- 15:58Sick. Yeah.
- 15:58Yeah, Branson's good. He's going much later.
- 16:00Than Uber though, that's crazy. I'm more like projections are
- 16:05are are kind of suspect and you have to take advantage of your,
- 16:09your platforms ADP and what they see people doing this year.
- 16:16Alright, yeah. Move on. #8.
- 16:19Alright #8 is the first of three Florida Panthers in this top
- 16:24ten, which is kind of crazy for such a strong team, but we could
- 16:29talk about why that makes sense and it is Brad Marshawn.
- 16:33His last year stats he had 71 games played 51 points .9 Pimms
- 16:38per game 2.7 shots, 1.1 hits, which is very solid and his ADP
- 16:42is at 107. But he's a pretty big trap.
- 16:45Obviously his the he's 37 going into the season, but mainly the
- 16:50trade to Florida where he's going to be line 3 power play 2.
- 16:52And I looked up his back cats to see how they changed from after
- 16:56the trade because obviously we know the points that's gonna go
- 16:58down because of that being buried in the lineup.
- 17:00But if a guy can put up those solid pimms shots hits, then
- 17:03he's still worth looking at. But his pimms dropped from .9
- 17:06pins per game to .2 after the trade.
- 17:08Obviously it's a very small sample size.
- 17:10I think he only played 10 games in the regular season with them,
- 17:12but still, that's something to look at because if he doesn't
- 17:14have that pins in a Pimms league, that really, really like
- 17:17brings down his value. I I will say his playoffs was
- 17:22sick. Yeah.
- 17:23Like that's one thing to consider. 20 points and 23 games
- 17:26is unbelievable and. That's even bigger trap.
- 17:30Yeah, yeah. Yeah, people remember the name,
- 17:32they remember the production. That's probably why is 80P is so
- 17:35high. I I totally agree that he's a
- 17:37trap because of the age. Also, that's such a saturated
- 17:41lineup. But this doesn't mean, and I
- 17:43know we have a lot of players on this list that we think Florida
- 17:46is gonna not be good. And that's kind of the anomaly.
- 17:48You know what I mean? Like we think Florida is gonna
- 17:50be sick, but these guys. Just too many mouths to feed.
- 17:53That's the classic thing. Like when you have like, same
- 17:55with Dallas, right? Every year.
- 17:56Like they've got a team with so many good players and there's
- 18:00only so much ice time to go around and they're not going to
- 18:02split it evenly. Just have all the good players
- 18:04still going to give their best players the better time.
- 18:06So, so yeah, these really good teams often have a lot of trap
- 18:09players because you end up with good guys playing on the third
- 18:12line, second power play. I think I paid for the vibes.
- 18:15He didn't really get paid because they think he's gonna be
- 18:17so good for the next five years. Yeah, he got he got hit in the.
- 18:20Blizzards. The cup, So honestly, the
- 18:24signing worked out and now he's he's set with another contract.
- 18:27But I think the biggest thing with Marshawn is, you know, if I
- 18:31mean, I don't wanna should we just kind of like talk about the
- 18:34next guy at the same time, because I feel like they go hand
- 18:36in hand. Their ADP is kind of close
- 18:38together. Alright, OK, let's let's bring
- 18:41up #7 as well to discuss. Alright.
- 18:43And that is Matthew Kuchuk, who is normally a first round pick.
- 18:48Last year he only played 52 games, got 57 points, a pimp per
- 18:51game, three shots, 1.6 hits. That's unreal in terms of like
- 18:54per game stats. Obviously missing 30 games is
- 18:56not ideal, but is per game stats have not changed.
- 18:59He's still like a first rounder if he's healthy.
- 19:02His ADP on YEAH was 94, so it's already very much like.
- 19:07The injuries taken into account. Yeah, exactly.
- 19:10But there's a lot of people who, you know, the biggest way that I
- 19:14see him as a trap is if he doesn't get the surgery before
- 19:18the season starts and says something like, oh, I'm good to
- 19:21go, I'm going to play through it, whatever, you know?
- 19:23Then either he's gonna play until he needs that, he realizes
- 19:26he really needs the surgery, and then he misses a bunch of the
- 19:29season and you didn't see it coming because he said he wasn't
- 19:31going to get the surgery. Or he plays the whole season,
- 19:33but he's injured the whole time, so he doesn't play at his full
- 19:35potential. So that's why he's a big trap.
- 19:38OK, now I have many points that I want to say because I didn't
- 19:41get to talk about on on Marshawn.
- 19:43But I think the biggest thing with Marshawn is, is if ketchup
- 19:46is out, does he slot onto PP1? Because that's the main thing
- 19:50for for I think Marshawn's potential value.
- 19:52And why is ADP is where it is? Because they're projecting a
- 19:55decent amount of power play points for him.
- 19:57And if he's not on the P1, I don't think he gets hit that
- 20:00threshold. Like they haven't seen for like
- 20:0117 power play points this week this year.
- 20:05Who? Marshall.
- 20:06Yeah, y'all projections have about 17.
- 20:09I think they're they're probably banking in him having some P1
- 20:12time this year because I don't see how he hits that on P2 the
- 20:15whole year. I don't think he's going to get
- 20:17it. I think Bennett was is more of a
- 20:19priority. So one that's I I agree with you
- 20:24or over Hagee, but yeah, I think I think that.
- 20:27We think the guarantee ones is Barkov, Reinhart and defensemen.
- 20:30We'll discuss which defensemen also coming up on that list, but
- 20:33that's the guaranteed 3, which leaves two open spots.
- 20:36Assuming chucks out the guys who are in the running is Verhage,
- 20:39Bennett, Marshawn, and I'm gonna sneak in Samutsevich because he
- 20:43had a lot of time there last. Year.
- 20:45That's four guys with two spots. I think Bennett's the clear
- 20:48number one guy in and out of those four and I think that
- 20:50leaves the next three to fight great.
- 20:52And I just don't see Marshawn winning that fight over Verhagen
- 20:55and Samutsevich. His price right now is taking
- 20:58into account him winning that spot and keeping it, whereas
- 21:02basically you're drafting him at a scene.
- 21:04Yeah, Marshall, you're drafting him and his ceiling.
- 21:07So I already feel like that's a recipe for disaster because if
- 21:10anything goes wrong, you're basically losing value off the
- 21:13bat. And that's why it probably draft
- 21:15other guys around him. Like I'd rather take.
- 21:18I'm just looking around him, you know, guys like Verhagen going
- 21:20right next to my take. I take Matt Barzal, I take the
- 21:24Brink kit, I take Mira Haskin in, you know, like these are all
- 21:27guys that I feel like have, you know, sure spots.
- 21:30You're kind of, you know what you're getting.
- 21:31You don't have the ambiguity and aren't going to let you down
- 21:35like Marshall probably will. And then Matthew could Chuck.
- 21:38I mean at a certain point he does become a a tempting value
- 21:42this late in draft. You know, stash him on IR if you
- 21:44need to, but because pick pick in in the 90s, ninety to 100
- 21:49probably is where he's going to go.
- 21:52If you honestly, I like I love I love taking a chance on on got
- 21:55like injured like superstars. It might just cost you.
- 21:58The season of the Trap? What like.
- 22:01Just it might just cost, no cost you this season if you, if you
- 22:04draft him and you enjoy, you know, the, the fruitfulness of
- 22:07the beginning of the year and then he's out for the last like
- 22:092-3 months when you actually need him.
- 22:10For yeah, that's why I would only draft him.
- 22:12I would draft him late, assuming he's gonna be injured for most
- 22:15of the year and just stash him on your IRA and hope that it's
- 22:18the opposite direction. If you instead.
- 22:19If he starts healthy and then gets injured, is out for the
- 22:21season, then I'm not interested in him.
- 22:23But if he starts off like with having the surgery and then he's
- 22:25injured for the first like 2-3 months and then he comes back
- 22:28like full force, that's the guy I love to stash on my IRA.
- 22:31You can get him late enough in the.
- 22:32Draft because my, my thought is we knew in the offseason that
- 22:35that he was due to get this surgery right?
- 22:38Like it was everything that they were talking about and then he'd
- 22:41be ready for the start of the season or he missed a little bit
- 22:43on the start of the season. The fact that he hasn't had the
- 22:46surgery yet, I feel like they're just setting it up for a mid
- 22:49season surgery. LTIR use the cap room again at
- 22:53the end of the season and then they have a surefire insurance
- 22:57policy for that because we all know we've heard already.
- 22:59So we can't be like they're faking putting him on IR, Yeah,
- 23:03but they have a situation to take advantage.
- 23:05Of that, this is the last year that a team could could take
- 23:08advantage of that. So you know, they're gonna do
- 23:10whatever they can to get that three, even if it means this is
- 23:13half the season. So would you draft?
- 23:15Would you draft them here if you know you're only getting him for
- 23:18the first three or four months of the season?
- 23:20That's what I was gonna say. Like, OK, this is weird.
- 23:22Everyone else on the list is like a trap at their cost right
- 23:26now. If it is the first three months
- 23:29of the season or even if it's later.
- 23:30Like, I don't mind drafting to Chuck here, but what's going to
- 23:33happen is that if he's going to start the season of the, then
- 23:35he's gonna get bumped up to minimum like round three, if not
- 23:39maybe even Round 2, which is where I think we're all
- 23:43suggesting to avoid him. And then if it's if he's
- 23:46starting off injured, maybe he'll slot down to like, where
- 23:50is he now around 9:00, you said? Yeah.
- 23:54So maybe he slots slots down to like round 12, in which case,
- 23:58like, OK, yeah, you could maybe give it a chance.
- 24:01But if he stays like round nine and like status quo with the
- 24:04ambiguity, like I would probably take the shot at him, but I
- 24:07don't want to like I'm the opposite of Josh and it's
- 24:09happened to work for him better than it's worked for me.
- 24:12At the end of the day, like I don't like picking injured guys.
- 24:15It's just not something I feel comfortable doing.
- 24:17So what? I pick him at this cost
- 24:20probably, but any higher I'm I'm.
- 24:23Scared. So I want to say one last thing
- 24:27before we probably move on to the next name, but I feel like
- 24:31this is a really good opportunity to talk about game
- 24:34theory and overall season strategy.
- 24:36Because I mean, I play a lot of fantasy football basketball, and
- 24:40there's a lot of game theory that goes into into that.
- 24:43Whereas, you know, it's a big tournament and the most
- 24:45important weeks are the playoff week.
- 24:47So it's it's the last three weeks of the season.
- 24:51And if you knew going into the season that a certain player was
- 24:55going to get you zeros the whole season, but in the playoff weeks
- 24:58was going to get you like 10 extra production of what they
- 25:03would usually do. So imagine they're getting like
- 25:05their average 33 points a game for all playoff weeks and like 5
- 25:09shots a game, but they're getting zeros every week before
- 25:12the playoffs. Where would you draft that
- 25:13player? The smart thing you have to do
- 25:15is you draft them in the first round because you know how
- 25:19valuable it is when you play to win and how important those
- 25:22playoff weeks are. That's all that matters.
- 25:24So if it's the opposite, if you know that in the most important
- 25:27weeks this player is gonna be straight zeros for you, how
- 25:29valuable is that player actually to your team?
- 25:32Probably not very valuable because you could probably make
- 25:34the playoffs without drafting him and drafting somebody else
- 25:36and then not have a flat 0 in the playoff weeks.
- 25:39So I think that's just something to take into account if you're
- 25:41looking at really being strategic.
- 25:43Like, yeah, you might enjoy Matthew Truck on your roster for
- 25:45the first couple of months and have that extra value, but does
- 25:48it really get you better chance at having to win at the end of
- 25:50the season? Probably not.
- 25:52Yeah, pretty much. My view is if he's healthy to
- 25:54start the season, I'm not taking him.
- 25:56If he's injured then I'm interested obviously at the
- 25:58right P. Yeah, that's a good, that's a
- 26:03good way of looking. At it.
- 26:04Also one more thing with drafting injured players.
- 26:05I love drafting at least one injured player because in my
- 26:08mind that's just an extra draft pick I get is then immediately
- 26:11after the draft ends I toss them on my IR and I get to make a
- 26:13free agent pickup which is just an extra dart throw I'm taking.
- 26:16Yeah, if you're, if you're leagues IR plus, then all those
- 26:18data day guys or questionable guys or whatever can slot on
- 26:22your IR plus. So definitely want to keep that
- 26:24in mind. All right, let's move on to the
- 26:27next one. Number six.
- 26:29At six, we have Anthony Sorelli of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
- 26:34Last year he had 80 games played, 59 points, two shots per
- 26:38game, 8 faceoff wins per game and his 80P's 91 on Yahoo.
- 26:43Which obviously, yeah, the ADP is going to be different
- 26:46depending on your league settings because yeah, it's
- 26:49always just, yeah, it's pretty high when you think about it.
- 26:53Yeah. Like a in in some leagues that
- 26:57include plus minus he's in the 50s.
- 26:59Like he's going next to guys like Robertson, Wyatt, Johnston,
- 27:02Travis Connect me, John Tavares. I mean the plus.
- 27:07Minus crazy. Face off wins as well is pretty,
- 27:10pretty big and I think the reason shorties for sure, that's
- 27:15a big one. Another reason is he's coming
- 27:16off a career year. He never topped 45 points before
- 27:19last year and last year he got 59.
- 27:21But it was just one hot stretch of the season.
- 27:23It wasn't like consistent production.
- 27:25And he still aligned to power play too.
- 27:27He has zero shot of breaking past either of those.
- 27:30So to me, he's honestly someone I wouldn't even draft.
- 27:33Like maybe if you're going for faceoff wins and like you said,
- 27:37face off wins, plus minus, short, easy, you know, those
- 27:40kind of like fringe categories. If your league counts all of
- 27:43them, then he can be like a good late round guy to take to like
- 27:46fill out your roster. But for me, who like doesn't
- 27:48usually target faceoff wins. I'm not.
- 27:50I'm not touching him. I need.
- 27:52To I don't. That's not a good pick.
- 27:54I was gonna say I need to preface this by if you're in a
- 27:57plus minus league, please try to not play in a plus minus league
- 28:00because they're awful and we've done a couple of studies on
- 28:04them. And just to show that there's
- 28:05literally no correlation between plus minus and a weekly basis of
- 28:11how good that is for your team. But I think that's one of the
- 28:14main reasons why Sorrell's ADP is so high is because his plus
- 28:17minus tends to usually be positive.
- 28:19But there's no way that you can justify this draft cost for a
- 28:23player that has this kind of deployment and that hit career
- 28:26highs last year for one specific reason.
- 28:28Like Tampa had some injuries and he was filling in the need.
- 28:31Like if he's not blind 1P1 in that Tampa team, he's not gonna
- 28:35hit the same points he did last year and that's all there is to
- 28:38it. If you play in the face off
- 28:39leagues, obviously he becomes slightly more valuable because
- 28:42that's an extra category that he's effective at as a centre,
- 28:45but there's so many guys would take ahead of him.
- 28:48Is Jonathan Hooper to one of those guys?
- 28:50Yes, yeah, I would take. Probably take Cooper, go ahead
- 28:53of him, right the line 1P1 like the shares are probably gonna
- 28:56get the same. This is a good IRL player like,
- 29:00but yeah, it doesn't. Translate R player He was a he
- 29:02was a a silky trophy candidate and yeah, yeah.
- 29:09Yeah, he's just not that good for fantasy.
- 29:11Like it it is what it is. He's never really has been up
- 29:14until last year and it was a flash in the pan at this point.
- 29:16You have players around his cost that I'd way, way, way rather
- 29:21over him and our league values face offs.
- 29:25So like that is something to consider.
- 29:27I mean, obviously he would be much lower than Jason
- 29:29Robertson's behind him. So was Matthew Nyas.
- 29:31Yeah, that's crazy. Most likely that's a face off
- 29:35unique thing nevertheless to even be considered in the
- 29:38conversation. And there are a lot of leagues
- 29:39with faceoffs. Would not even come close to
- 29:43considering that this guy is like a fourteenth round pick.
- 29:46Maybe. 15 yeah, obviously depends on your league, but if
- 29:50you're in a league that plays plus minus those like that
- 29:53category specifically really, really influences a person's
- 29:58draft projections and whatnot. Like you'll have guys like, I'm
- 30:02in a league that has plus minus and hits and shorties, OK?
- 30:06So just those 3 categories. They have surely projected 20
- 30:10spots over Sidney Crosby. Crazy.
- 30:15They they have Crosby, they have Crosby projected for 90 points
- 30:19and sorely projected for I think 50 points.
- 30:24So that's a 40 point difference. But surely they have him at plus
- 30:2824 and Crosby at -9 and that, that just bridges the gap on
- 30:34Crosby being, you know, 20 picks after him.
- 30:36So that's why I think there's no shot in your mind that you're
- 30:40ever taking entirely over Cindy Crosby, right?
- 30:43No, And that's because plus minus influence, influence is so
- 30:47strong. So that's I'm just saying be
- 30:49careful. Obviously, look at look at why a
- 30:51person is ranked so high in your league.
- 30:54And that's why honestly, I feel like, I mean, I play a lot of
- 30:56fantasy sports. Fantasy hockey is where I see
- 30:59the most. I think discrepancy between what
- 31:02the ADP actually is for final season rankings because we see
- 31:07all these niche categories really influence projections.
- 31:13Yeah. And even sometimes final season
- 31:16rankings there's like an actual real gap with that and utility
- 31:20like really may actually be ranked high for all the reasons
- 31:23you mentioned. And during the year he has an
- 31:24amazing average plus minus and you're still the worst plus
- 31:27minus team and it's useless. But we though exactly that's a
- 31:32great point, Jackie and we did studies where one year we had
- 31:35plus minus in our league like two or three years ago.
- 31:37And and Josh, we we play in a in a head to head categories
- 31:41league. And Josh had overall over the
- 31:44season 200 more plus minus than the second place person.
- 31:48Josh was in first place. So over this whole season he had
- 31:51200 more plus minus. And at the end of the season,
- 31:55when you look at how many times like you won the category
- 31:57compared to how many times you lost the category was 5050.
- 32:00He had won it just as many times as he lost it.
- 32:02And that just goes to show how you can't really predict plus
- 32:05minus on a week to week basis. Some weeks you may get 10, some
- 32:08weeks you might get -10 by the same player.
- 32:10It's really ridiculous. And putting that much emphasis
- 32:13on trying to win that category when all the other categories
- 32:15are way more predictable. It just, it's not a good way to
- 32:18build your team. I never look up plus minus when
- 32:20I build my rosters. Yeah, that was a really fun,
- 32:23funnier. It's wild.
- 32:25Can you imagine being 200 points more than the second person and
- 32:29and at the end of the year it means nothing?
- 32:31Don't have to imagine it, I lived it.
- 32:35And yet you still want the elite that you're right, so.
- 32:37Yeah, I mean, I I still killed it, Yeah, but.
- 32:41Yeah, I'm glad we got rid of that rule.
- 32:43Yeah, I guess that wraps up our part.
- 32:47One of our top ten top players to avoid for next on the ball
- 32:52today. There it is.
- 32:56Thank you to everybody for listening.
- 32:57If you enjoyed the solo right us five stars on Apple, Spotify or
- 33:01wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a comment vote in the
- 33:04poll for the episodes. We always want to hear your
- 33:07feedback. I would say send us messages if
- 33:09you want to see specific content from us, if you want us to cover
- 33:12certain draft strategies or certain types of players,
- 33:15bangers or whatnot. Like let us know what you want
- 33:17to see. We'll deliver.
- 33:18And make sure you listen to our previous episodes.
- 33:20We just covered breakout candidates.
- 33:22I thought that was some really great content.
- 33:24So make sure you take a listen to that and look forward to the
- 33:27next one. Yeah, this is really helpful for
- 33:30all your lease come draft time. So if you want that competitive
- 33:33edge against all your league mates, just keep listening to us
- 33:37and yeah, you're probably gonna win your league.
- 33:40And where you get the, uh, the final five of this list, Yeah.
- 33:44These five are honestly gonna have some spicy.
- 33:46Names I, I'm I'm ready. You know, if you're listening to
- 33:51this. Already.
- 33:52When this went live, you'll have a couple of days to wait until
- 33:55the next episode goes live. So.
- 33:57So yeah, stay tuned. The anticipation is there, but
- 33:59we're gonna talk about some big names to avoid this year.
- 34:02Yeah, it will not disappoint, I'm telling.
- 34:05You. I'm excited.
- 34:08Alright, take it away, Earn. Barbara Bound Bound Banger
- 34:12Management Fantasy Hockey podcast.
- 34:14Woo woo whoo. Oh, you left us hanging a little
- 34:20there. I saw so scared for a second I.
- 34:22Saw a quick trivia thing the other day.
- 34:24You could keep this in if you want.
- 34:25And like, it was like impossible to answer questions about Harry
- 34:29Potter. And there were five of them and
- 34:31then one of them was, what is the bus driver's name?
- 34:37Was the only one that got away with it.
- 34:41So what question were never good ever yet?
- 34:43Yeah, that's amazing. What were the other questions?
- 34:48I just like something impossible stuff like I had no.
- 34:51Clue what the bus drivers name is?
- 34:53That's not impossible. No other people.
- 34:56I guess it's tough for them and not for us.
- 34:58Not not for these guys. It was like, what is Lunas
- 35:03Patronus? Oh, that's.
- 35:06I don't know. So difficult.
- 35:09Isn't it? I don't.
- 35:10Know, I don't know. It's a woodchuck.
- 35:12What? Those are real.
- 35:16What you take away from that just those are.
- 35:17Real, that guy said, too. It's Harry Potter, not all the
- 35:22animals in there are real. I just thought.
- 35:24It was a tongue twister. What wood could a woodchuck
- 35:28Chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck wood?
- 35:30Woodchuck. A real animal?
- 35:33Hold on. Yeah.
- 35:35So woodchuck is a real animal. That's a type of Marmot, a large
- 35:40ground squirrel. And it's I love.
- 35:42What is a Groundhog? It's the same thing.
- 35:45Sick. Nice.
- 35:47All right.