Now that all games in gameweek 1 are complete, we can show you some information on who the most picked players are in the game.
So far, we have 183 teams who had a valid roster submitted for gameweek 1. Just over half of the teams have selected Scott Conway to lead their forward group. Even with Belfast on CHL duty for the opening weekend they will make those games up later in the season. Matt Petgrave is the only new player to the league in the top 10 and he is comfortably in second with 63 selections. Despite no points in the first week, you can see he jumps up into the play and is an offensively minded defenceman. In third place with 54 sections is the reliable Shane Owen who will play every week and make plenty of saves to gather regular points for your team.
The top 10 goalie selections are below with Ben Bowns coming in second behind the previously mentioned Shane Owen. Picking the right goalie tandem will be difficult this year with more teams than ever before carrying two import players for the position. We therefore see Shane Owen, Paavo Holsa, Hayden Lavigne and Anton Svensson all with a good number of selections as they look set to play almost every game.
In defence we have a lot of the solid point scorers from last year being selected again. Mitch Jones and Dallas Ehrhardt were two of the top scorers and Ben O’Connor and Drydn Dow have a proven history of putting up points from the blueline. In our season preview for the Cardiff Devils we had Sam Jardine as our breakout player, and he has been selected 49 times. If you are looking for value then David Clements, Kevin Raine and Josh Batch should give you consistent if not spectacular points scores.
Up front Scott Conway is the clear leader in terms of selections but behind him is some of the top performers from last year. Adam Brady comes in second, but the question is will his move from Manchester to Nottingham increase his production or not. Mathieu Roy, Brodie Reid and Robert Dowd will give you plenty of goals for your team, and we know that Joey Martin and Mike Hammond have the potential to lead the league in points. Evan Mosey has had a position change this year from defence to forward but still retains a large number of selections, however with defence points being worth more than forward points he will need to score more than last year to be worth his value. Adam Raska is the only new name, and he was our breakout player in the Steelers season preview.
Don’t forget the deadline each week to make your trades and captain changes is midnight on Tuesday. Keep checking the website and social media for our team of the week and players of the week posts. These will give you a good idea of who is in form and a potential good pick for the upcoming weeks.
