{"id":131650,"date":"2022-08-22T11:08:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T15:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=131650"},"modified":"2022-08-22T11:08:13","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T15:08:13","slug":"mid-round-players-2022-23-fantasy-hockey-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/08\/22\/mid-round-players-2022-23-fantasy-hockey-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid-Round Players for Your 2022-23 Fantasy Hockey Draft With Playoffs In Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2022-23 Fantasy Hockey season is just around the corner.\u00a0 Many sports outlets have posted their top 250 lists, such as ESPN<\/a> and NHL.com<\/a>.\u00a0 A myriad of professionals are relaying their message on how to properly draft to win your league based on these projections, and it can become daunting.\u00a0 Quite honestly, you could auto-draft your first four rounds and be no worse or better than any other team in your league (not counting the lucky soul who took .5 seconds to select Connor McDavid<\/a>).\u00a0 It is after these rounds that fantasy seasons are won and lost; the so-called \u201cfinding the sleeper picks.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is very important to draft well and use the waiver wire to make your playoffs, but it should be just as important to already be relevant when they start.\u00a0 Your playoffs will encompass the last month or two of the season, a time where the studs could see diminished ice time in order to prepare for a deep run, or play less meaningful games as their team’s playoff seeding becomes set.\u00a0 To prepare for this potential, you should consider drafting some players in the mid-rounds that historically produce well in these months of the season.\u00a0 Analytics is a great tool, but there are things that just cannot be quantified, and a player\u2019s ability to turn it on at the end of the year is one of them.\u00a0 Here are three such candidates to keep your eye on in your 2022-23 Fantasy Hockey draft.<\/p>\n

These players are based on the assumption that your league is a standard scoring system.\u00a0 If you happen to be in a league that has customized the scoring options, they will still hold value for you but there may be other intangibles to be aware of.<\/em><\/p>\n

Optimizing Mid-Round Selections For Playoff Success In Your 2022-23 Fantasy Hockey Draft<\/h2>\n

Brayden Point<\/a><\/h3>\n

Be mindful of where Point is when it is your turn to select in the early middle rounds.\u00a0 There is a mixed belief of where he falls in projections, with ESPN having him ranked at 134 while NHL.com has him at 75.\u00a0 A lot of that is based on his ranking from last year, but keep in mind he only played 66 games and still produced 58 points.\u00a0 It is what he does in the last two months of the season that is intriguing.\u00a0 Of his 51 goals over the last two seasons, 23 of them have come in March or April, or close to half.\u00a0 For those leagues that also play with the bonus points for power-play production, Point is a must.\u00a0 He has scored 16 goals on the power play the last two seasons, and 10 of them were in March and April.<\/p>\n

Here is your other factor to keep in mind: you want players that play games.\u00a0 Three or four (if you\u2019re lucky) per week is very important during your fantasy playoff.\u00a0 More games mean less rest, so how does Point handle that kind of workload?\u00a0 Very well, as it turns out.\u00a0 Over the last two seasons, Point has played 69 games on one day’s rest and has 50 points (25g 25a).<\/p>\n

In fact, when looking at his historical numbers, Point performs much better on one day than with any other amount.\u00a0 In March and April, the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> will play 13 games on one day’s rest.\u00a0 Not only are you going to get the number of games you are looking for from your player, but with Point, you also get someone who performs well in this time with the right amount of rest.\u00a0 In a standard 12-person league, a sixth-round pickup (maybe a fifth) is something to consider.<\/p>\n

Ryan O’Reilly<\/a><\/h3>\n

This is the definition of a \u201cturns it on at the end\u201d player.\u00a0 ESPN has O\u2019Reilly ranked at 146, while NHL.com has him ranked at 122.\u00a0 Pretty standard mid-pack player.\u00a0 If he is on the board in the tenth round, it\u2019s a mistake and you should make your fellow fantasy teams pay for it.\u00a0 Over the last two campaigns, O\u2019Reilly has scored 45 goals.\u00a0 Over half of those, 25 of them, have been in March and April.\u00a0 In fact, his highest point-producing months in both seasons were April (yes he did miss the first part of the 2020-21 season, but his March and April were off the chart, helping make that season the best point per game production of his career at .96).<\/p>\n

Much like Tampa, the St. Louis Blues<\/a> will play a good number of games on one day’s rest.\u00a0 Much like Brayden Point, O\u2019Reilly thrives in this situation.\u00a0 Over the last two seasons, he has played in 76 games on one day rest, producing 68 points (26g 42a).\u00a0 That is very near .9 a game for a player whose career average is .7 per game.\u00a0 The Blues will play 14 games on one day rest the last two months, again assuring you the games per week from a player that elevates his game to higher levels when the season is winding down.<\/p>\n

One little caveat for those of you who get points for faceoff wins, O\u2019Reilly averaged about 60% on the dot during March and April last season, quite the bump for a career 55.8% player.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Oliver Bjorkstrand<\/a><\/h3>\n

There is no consensus on Bjorkstrand.\u00a0 ESPN has him ranked 104, while NHL.com has him at 190.\u00a0 He will also be suiting up for a new squad this season after a July trade<\/a> sent him from the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> to the Seattle Kraken<\/a>.\u00a0 Bjorkstrand had a coming-out party last season, setting or matching career highs in goals, assists, points, power-play goals, and power-play points.\u00a0 It would not be a surprise to see him at least match this production, which makes him a great mid-round(s) pick-up, but you should benefit from increased March and April production as well.\u00a0 In 57 games over the last two seasons, Bjorkstrand has scored 43 points (20g 23a) in March or April, which is a decent bump over his career points per game numbers.\u00a0 His goal production is even better, scoring 20 of his 46 goals over the last two seasons in March and April.<\/p>\n

Bjorkstrand is also the darling of the three players on this list when it comes to the one-day rest.\u00a0 For starters, Seattle will play 15 games on this rest, so you\u2019re getting a great volume of games played.\u00a0 Second, over the last two years, Bjorkstrand has played 136 regular season games, scoring 46 goals.\u00a0 In 75 one-day rest games, he has scored 31.\u00a0 In 61 other types of rest games, he has scored 15.\u00a0 He is not just marginally better on a day\u2019s rest; he is much better.\u00a0 There is a concern that these 15 games may be meaningless for Seattle as they may not be competing for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

Fortunate for you though, in the month of April alone Seattle will play the Arizona Coyotes<\/a> three times, the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> twice, and the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a>, two teams not expected to be a playoff team, and one in Vegas who is questionable considering their newfound goalie predicament.\u00a0 It may be a stretch to draft him around the 100 mark but letting him slip much further could be a big mistake.<\/p>\n

Main Photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>