Fantasy Hockey 101: Protect Your Players

BallHype: hype it up! Add to RootZoo

Thursday is the deadline for LSHL owners to protect 11 of their finest. Here is the standard LS reminder for those who have forgotten (Editor’s Note: It originally stated a day much earlier in the month…I’ll leave it at that.). I almost forgot here are the rosters. Red means those players are available in the expansion draft by the way for those scoring at home. There are a ton of tough decision when you leave a dozen guys unprotected. True in the LSHL, you can only lose two players max but no one ever quite knows which two players will go the way of the dodo and on to someone else’s team. You have to love the nature of the beast that is a money keeper league.

Personally, I faced a number of tough decisions…the toughest probably being Brendan Shanahan. He was probably the last player I made a choice on simply because will he find a team…won’t he…and will it be the right fit? These are tough questions that you shouldn’t have to answer so early in the infancy of the offseason but sometimes it has to be addressed. I made my decision…I stuck with it. Honestly, I just hope it doesn’t bite me in the old proverbial you know where…because it could!

Even our commish is waiting on his protected list as I guess he doesn’t want to tip his hand too early. At this point, everyone kind of has an idea who is going to be left out there aside from a few surprises because there are always those that dangle a player out there hoping no one noticed. Believe me, people notice!! Leagues are not like they used to be….they are beyond ultra-competitive now. By Thursday, we will really see who is going to be left out there by the teams and what the expansion teams will actually have to work with.

I am curious as to what the expansion franchises will do. I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase an existing team so I have a bit of a leg up. Despite that, when you have some savvy fantasy owners…they really can build a team from scratch and surprise you. Those are the GM’s you truly have to watch for aside from the ones you know well. The ones you don’t…you better get to know quick…or they will snatch up your guys like a thief in the night and before you know it, they wind up with a team that is way better than yours.

That my friends is fantasy hockey at its finest. The challenge of any year-round league is to stay on top of it…and that starts this week.

About Chris Wassel

Simply I am a sports writer whose first loves will always be hockey and food. As we attempt to fix the site which has fallen into some disrepair (okay a lot), any and all help is always appreciated. For now, everything will channel through on a post by post basis. As always, let's have some fun!

Quantcast