This season our scouting department will be giving an update prior to the start of each game week to give you all the information you need to get your team top of the standings.
Roster Moves
We have one signing again this week and this time it is the Belfast Giants bringing a fresh face in. As they have a few injuries on defence coach Adam Keefe has decided to add Karl Boudrias to his roster, who started this season in Slovakia. He did play the previous four years in the ECHL and the last two of those, with Tulsa, were particularly impressive with a total of 58 points across 133 games. He is added into the game with a 7.0M value.
In terms of selections, Steven Seigo was added in by another 12 teams and he had another solid week for his 62 GM’s. Behind him we had two Dundee players, Drydn Dow and Domenico Alberga, who both had nine additional selections. Overall Matt Greenfield leads the way still with 130 selections and that figure has been around the same since week 3. Storm’s Joe Morrow and Jake Durflinger are second and third but they are quite a way behind at 94 and 87 selections respectively.
Daniel Leavens was the most traded out player for the week after two blank scores in the last three weeks. He did how ever pick up a goal and an assist for 22 points this week. At 9.5M though GM’s are expecting a bit more consistency.
Who’s Hot?
Over the next few weeks we’ll have a look at the top scoring players from each position. This week we will start with the goalies where we are seeing a bit of a theme forming at the top of the standings in that we have a correlation between minutes played and points scored. With the league becoming tighter from top to bottom and any team able to beat any other, you need your goalie to be on the ice as much as possible.
Mat Robson has played every minute this season for Coventry and the success the Blaze have had so far has meant he is the leading scorer with 160 points. Matt Greenfield, who has played all games except one, and Evan Weninger, who has played every game, are just behind. The one team/goalie duo going against what we are seeing are Tom McCollum and Jackson Whistle of Belfast who are splitting the time in goal much more than other teams, but are both in the top 10. This is largely due to that they both have two shutouts on the season which is worth an extra 25 points each.
The other teams who are splitting their time more evenly are the Guildford Flames and to a lesser extent, Dundee Stars. Their goalies aren’t scoring the same number of points and aren’t really worth their value. Scout’s tip at the moment is to keep to those goalies who are playing the most minutes, even if not necessarily for the teams at the top of the standings.
| Mat Robson | G | Coventry Blaze | 8.0M | 160 points |
| Matt Greenfield | G | Sheffield Steelers | 9.5M | 153 points |
| Evan Weninger | G | Manchester Storm | 9.0M | 151 points |
| Tom McCollum | G | Belfast Giants | 9.0M | 148 points |
| Ryan Bednard | G | Nottingham Panthers | 8.0M | 138 points |
| Jackson Whistle | G | Belfast Giants | 6.5M | 136 points |
| Ben Bowns | G | Cardiff Devils | 8.5M | 130 points |
| Richard Sabol | G | Dundee Stars | 8.0M | 111 points |
| Shane Owen | G | Fife Flyers | 8.5M | 105 points |
| Landon Bow | G | Glasgow Clan | 9.0M | 90 points |
Who’s Not?
In this section we will look at those players performing below their projections based on value and whose form has dropped off. As we mentioned earlier in the post, Belfast have a few injury issues on their blueline which has meant they have had to bring in an extra body. Lets check their last game on Sunday against Dundee to see who was missing. Zak Galambos and Mike Lee were the more recognised defenceman to not be in the lineup, however both of these only have 18 combined selections.
If we look at the other games on Sunday both Fife and Belfast seemed like they were a couple of players short. For Belfast they are missing Joe Cassetti, Robert Carpenter and Ben Lake (suspended). Fife were missing Patrick Kyte from defence and Drake Pilon, Austin Farley and Johnny Curran from up front.
Upcoming Schedule
We have another week in which we will have big differences in minutes played across the teams and a lot to think about for your captains picks. We start on Wednesday again with our two teams who are playing three times in the week. Cardiff make the long trip up to Dundee for a league game before they travel back home to face Guildford on Friday night. They round off their week with a trip to Cardiff on Sunday. The Stars also play on Friday with a cup game in Glasgow before they travel back home to face Fife.
We also have two teams with just the one game this week, and both are at home on Saturday. The Nottingham Panthers host rivals Sheffield Steelers while the Manchester Storm welcome the Belfast Giants. The Steelers and Giants then both make their way to Sheffield for a game on Sunday.
Therefore based on minutes it might be wise to look towards Cardiff and Dundee players for your captain this week.
