In the latest in our series of posts to help you bring in the right players for your team, we are focusing in on the players who can get you some points, but more importantly aren’t in the majority of other teams. For example, if you want to catch the teams at the top of the league then bringing in the same players that they already have isn’t going to gain you points on them. You need to instead look out for the form players who aren’t in a lot of your opponent’s teams.
Some hints before we start –
- Arena team bias – Belfast, Sheffield, Nottingham and Cardiff have been the most successful teams over the last few seasons, so are rightly the first place to go if you are looking for point scorers. However, every team has players who can put the puck in the net and quite often these players are lower down the selection list.
- New Players – we will see new players joining the league throughout the season as injuries occur and some teams need to freshen up their roster. These players will start out not being selected by anyone so are perfect to get ahead of your rivals.
- Form Players – not all players will score consistent points every week of the season. A simple line change or being injury free can transform a player from the middle of the pack to being in the top 10 each week. If you can find these players quickly the benefit is that they won’t be owned by a lot of teams.
Lets break it down by position and pick out some options –
Goalie
In goal we have two players who are quite a way ahead of the others in terms of points so far. They are Matt Greenfield and Paavo Holsa who also happen to be playing for teams who at the moment who don’t really have a viable back-up option. The trend for most teams at the moment is to split time between goalies, so finding someone who either i) plays every week or ii) picks up a lot of wins when he does play is the key.
Let’s start with our league leading Guildford Flames. As it stands they are 8 points clear so picking up wins isn’t a problem. However only 15 teams have Eamon McAdam and 4 teams have Taz Burman. At the moment they are splitting time in goal but are picking up points each week. With Burman being valued more as a back-up goalie he is good value at just 7.5M.
We mentioned in our hints about picking up new signings and we two more options for you to consider. John Muse joined the Glasgow Clan a number of weeks ago now and his arrival coincided with a slight upturn in form for the Clan. A couple of departures (Bolton, Roy) may well slow things but only 4 teams have Muse in the net. The bonus as well is that he plays the majority of games. Another new signing is Manchester’s Jeremy Brodeur who has picked up a win each of the last three weeks while splitting time with Hayden Lavigne. He currently isn’t owned by anyone either, so a shutout win will give you at least 35 points on your rivals.
Defenceman
In defence we start off with a pair of Fife blueliners. Over the past few seasons Fife haven’t been known for high scoring defenceman so they are generally overlooked. This year though they have Christian Hausinger and Brayden Sherbinin who are just owned by 3 and 8 teams respectively. However, both are in the top 11 defenceman in scoring for the season and have scored over 50 points in one of the last two gameweeks.
We round out the defensive options with two names from the mroe well known teams. Sebastien Piche is slightly overlooked with the explosive offence from teammate Matt Petgrave but is tied for ninth in scoring amongst defenceman. He is only owned by 12 teams and is playing for a Sheffield team who are hitting form.
Finally, we have two names to keep tabs on over the next few weeks. Kelly Summers is playing for a Nottingham team who are really struggling so his points production isn’t there. They have brought in the experienced Corey Neilson to steady the ship and the talent is there for them to be towards the top of the table. Summers have shown in the last few years he can put up the offensive numbers and is currently owned by just 4 teams. The other name is Belfast’s new signing Josh Roach who is in no teams at the moment but put up nearly a point per game in 2018/19.
Forward
Up front we start off with two players with rhyming surnames, although we don’t recommend you use this as your method for picking teams going forward. Lewis Hook and Mitch Cook are both owned by just one team. If you read our player signing story on Hook, you will see why he has potential to exceed his 6.5M rating. Cook has put up three weeks of more than 30 points over the last seven gameweeks for the second placed Coventry Blaze.
However, if you want some form players with little ownership then we have Roman Semjonovs (over 30 points each of the last three gameweeks), Danny Kristo (average of 27 points over the last five gameweeks) and Scott Simmonds (average of 33 points over the last three gameweeks). All three players are owned by less than 10 teams each.
With the FHL UK Shield competition starting shortly now is the time to build up those trades ready to bring in those difference makers.
