Happy hockey season everyone! Here are your standings after the first week:

Standings 2018-10-02

(I apologize for the weird characters on the accented letters, I’ll try to get that sorted out for next week).

This data, and all the raw data supporting it, can be found in the results spreadsheet. I’ll have a post up later in the week talking through the results spreadsheet in detail but to get you started:

• The first tab, the summary tab, has a sorted list of the teams by current standing. To the right there’s a separate list of the teams in alphabetical order by name. As the season goes on this will show the points week-by-week so you can track your progress.
• If you click on a team name on the Summary tab it’ll take you to that team’s roster on the Teams tab.
• All the other tabs calculate the scores and store historical results, I’ll write more about them in a different article./

Congratulations to “E. Peña” for being our first ever leader! Here’s their current roster if you want to get tips from the top.

Trade deadline is Thursday 10/4, 11:59 p.m. Eastern

You can make one trade every week by letting me know by email at tigFantasyHockey@gmail.com. To trade, let me know who you’re selling and who you’re buying. Sales and purchases are made at that player’s current cost, which is on column K of the cost tab. Any spare dollars you have are noted in row 4 of your team’s entry on the teams tab and can be used for your trades.

Awards and trade tips

The spreadsheet has some stats from the last week on the points stats and value stats tabs, to give you a sense of who’s outperforming out there. So here are our first week’s awards!

Awards

• Highest scorer this week: Ella Shelton, Clarkson, a massive 5.8 points, ahead of Patti Marshall (Minnesota, 5.2) and T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, 4.1).
• Most overlooked (highest scoring player that no-one picked): Patti Marshall (Minnesota, 5.2 points this week (WP), 5.2 points this season (SP))
• Biggest boost (highest scoring player that only one manager picked): Nicole Schammel (Minnesota, 3 WP, 3 SP)
• Biggest contribution (highest value of points this week * number of teams they’re on): T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, 4.1 points * 15 picks = 61.5 total contribution)
• Best Freshman: Camryn Wong (UConn, 3.7 WP, 3.7 SP)
• Best Sophomore: Morgan Wabick (UConn, 4.1 WP, 4.1 SP)
• Best Junior: Ella Shelton (Clarkson, 5.8 WP, 5.8 SP)
• Best Senior: T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, 4.1 WP, 4.1 SP)
• Best D: Ella Shelton (Clarkson, 5.8 WP, 5.8 SP)
• Best F: T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, 4.1 WP, 4.1 SP)
• Best Goalie: Lauren Bailey (Robert Morris, 3.65 WP, 3.65 SP)/

Trade tips

As you can see in the awards, Morgan Wabick (UConn, 4.1 points, $22.40) had a pair of breakout games against a St Cloud team with elite goaltending; the fact that UConn had both the best freshman and the best sophomore in the NCAA last weekend, as well as Natalie Snodgrass (2.6 points, $35.50) suggests that we may have been underestimating them. Morgan Wabick’s twin sister Taylor (0 points, $13.90) also plays for UConn — she didn’t put up any points this last weekend but if Morgan’s primed for a breakout year it’s probably worth keeping an eye on Taylor too.

Lauren Bailey (Robert Morris, $6.9) was highest-scoring goalie this weekend, but this is mainly because goalie assists count for 2 points, so her 3.65 points may be a bit flattering. Samantha Ridgewell (Merrimack, 3.5, $32.5), Kassidy Sauvé (Clarkson, 3.15, $54.2), Terra Lanteigne (RIT, 3.1, $30.30) and Morgan Fisher (UConn, 3.1, $14.40) all also scored over 3 points. Ridgewell is a very strong goalie, but Merrimack has typically split starts between her and Léa-Kristine Demers (0 points, $15), so her upside is perhaps lower than the others on this list who are all sole starters.

An amazing 14 players have already earned more points this season than their preseason cost. Top of the list is Lauren Bailey, obviously, but Ellie Larson (RIT, preseason cost $2.4) got a goal, an assist, and a brace of blocked shots against Holy Cross to put her on 2.6 points for the season already. Note of course that performances against Holy Cross may not be reproducible against other teams.

The Value Stats tab also gives you Points Per Game Per Preseason Dollar, which is an Advanced Stat. For each player it divides total points by (games played * preseason cost) to give you a sense of who’s proportionally outperforming most. Obviously any stat that uses division will be distorted by a low denominator, i.e. by a low preseason cost, so it should be approached with caution for the first few weekends, but it might provide some useful pointers for trades. Right now it’s dominated by three categories of players: skaters with a very low preseason cost, obviously; goalies who are moving up to a starting role (Jenna Brenneman (Penn State, $4.50); Morgan Fisher (UConn, $14.40); Amanda Zeglen (OSU, $8.90); Abigail Levy (Minnesota State, $17.10)); and players who are genuinely having a breakout year. In this context, stick taps to Taylor Turnquist (Clarkson, 3.3 points, $12.90) and Katie McMillan (Penn State, 2.8 points, $11.70) for great weekends.

And while I’m at it, a big stick tap to Penn State for managing an 2-3 OT loss and a 4-2 win against last year’s national runner up Colgate despite having nine players suspended for the weekend. Jenna Brenneman, transfer from Clarkson, started both games and based on this performance may have locked down the starting position for the season.

Housekeeping

There’ll be a lot of this in the early weeks, I expect, and I also expect and hope that it’ll diminish as the season goes on.

• Players that were not included on the cost sheet: These are in general players who missed last year and who I wasn’t aware of, but it also includes those elusive St Lawrence freshmen and seniors who turned out to have eligibility. For anyone with no scoring record last year, I’ve started their cost at $15 and adjusted for points scored in any games to date. For the seniors-turned-grad-students I’ve used their points from last year and adjusted. The list is:
  — Shavonne Leacy (UConn, SO, $14.4) — redshirted freshman year due to injury
  — Nikki Friesen (Lindenwood, SR, $1.4) — graduate student at Lindenwood, played at Harvard as an undergrad, scored 1.3 fantasy points as a senior in 31 games
  — Brooklynn Schugel (UMD, JR, $13.7) — redshirted sophomore year due to injury, scored 5 goals and 5 assists as a freshman D which would have been good for around 12.5 points.
  — Kirsten Iwanski (RPI, JR, $14.5) — redshirted sophomore year due to illness, scored 1 goal and 5 assists as freshman D. Glad to see her healthy.
  — Janey Sandoval (Robert Morris, SO, $14.1) — redshirted freshman year
  — St Lawrence freshmen! Claire Dudley ($14.4), Stephanie Voge ($13.8), Kristen Guerriero (13.9).
  — Steph Keryluk (St Lawrence, JR, $14.1) — played two years at Minnesota state and put up two goals and four assists; didn’t play D1 last year.
  — Breana Blesi (Wisconsin, SO, $14.2) — Goalie, didn’t play last year
• Players whose names have changed on the cost sheet: This shouldn’t affect anyone — I’ve been trying to make sure the names on your teams are consistent with what’s coming from the stats site — but just in case you’re looking for a player’s cost under the name we were using preseason and can’t find it, here are names that are different from the names on the cost sheet, in the form [previous name -> current name]: Madelyn McArthur (BC) -> Maddy McArthur, Maddy Field (OSU) -> Madison Field (respecting the law of conservation of Maddies); Taylar Cianfarano (Clarkson) -> T.T. Cianfarano; Nemo Neubauerova (Colgate) -> Nemo Neubauerová, Alexane Rheaume (Mercyhurst) -> Alexane Rhéaume, Sara Saekkinen (OSU) -> Sara Säkkinen (pesky accents); Emily Harley (Robert Morris) -> Emilie Harley.
• Transfers not heretofore noted: Caroline Ross (BC -> Colgate); Nicole Guagliardo (Mercyhurst -> Lindenwood).
• Players whose names have been changed on the cost sheet due to a mistake made by a computer: The stats website has decided that Jenna Brenneman (Penn State) is actually “Jenna  Brenneman”, that’s “Jenna Brenneman” with two spaces. (The second space is silent). Also that Emily Oden is spelled “Emiy”. Because of computers, I needed to replicate this error wherever the players’ names appeared in order to get the stats to come out right. If you signed one of these players and check your roster and wonder why their names are spelled wrong, that’s why./

That’s it!

Trades to me at tigFantasyHockey@gmail.com by late Thursday please!