Almost exactly a year ago, our ten team league decided to try something new and add categories that few fantasy leagues might use in their head to head matchup leagues. Instead of your typical setup of goals, assists, power play points, plus/minus, penalty minutes, and shots on goal for skaters we added hits and blocks to add value to players further down NHL team’s depth charts. This sparked waiver wire action that was unprecedented in our league that allows for four additions/drops per week, as teams on average used about three of their four a week and also led to greater trade value for all around players in the league. Why do it? First, let us look at hits. We probably can all agree that big hits and players that are physical can change games. You needn’t look any farther than the New York Islanders fourth line. Would Matt Martin, owned by 6% of fantasy hockey players on Yahoo, or Cal Clutterbuck, owned by 4%, ever have any fantasy value in a typical league described above? Nope! The Islanders organization, Islander fans, and publications like The Hockey News will all tell you that those two were incredibly important to their 102 point season as they grinded opponents down with their intense physical play. Are they going to score a lot of goals, absolutely not, as Martin scored 8 and Clutterbuck 7 this season, but to say they aren’t valuable to the success of the Islanders would be an injustice. Martin led the NHL with an incredible 382 hits, beating his line mate Clutterbuck (343) by 39 hits. The third highest total in the league was Brooks Orpik with 306 hits. This also adds value to other 3rd and 4th liners. Like with Tommy Wingels who, when healthy, was an all-around stud. On top of his mediocre 40 points, or breakout depending on your view, he also had 263 hits and 158 shots on goal and was injured for several weeks in the middle of the season, so all of those totals could have been much higher, yet he was only owned by 10% of leagues on Yahoo. The second category we added was blocks and of all of the categories this turned out to be one of the more popular choices. The amount of defensemen that can help your fantasy team are limited but with the addition of hits and blocks we added to the value of tons of defensemen who would typically be overlooked. To make this argument you only have to look at one man, Kris Russell of the Calgary Flames. Before the injury to Mark Giordano, Russell’s value in fantasy leagues was almost non-existent, that is if you didn’t have blocks set as a category. In a typical league he would have been a below average defender before Giordano’s injury and then became more of an offensive threat after finishing with 4 goals and 30 assists. However, all season Russell was doing the dirty work for the Flames and you could argue that he was actually their most valuable defender to have played all season. Russell had 283 blocks for the Flames during the year and won that statistical category by 74 blocks, including one game where he had a whopping 15. Do Russell’s blocked shots hold any value in hockey? Absolutely! Those that follow the game closely or have played know that blocking an NHL shot is almost the ultimate sacrifice in the NHL. To put it in perspective, Russell’s 283 blocks are equivalent to 12 games worth of saves that Jonas Hiller made during the season. He was followed by Roman Josi and John Carlson who added to their already decent values with blocked shots and then Brooks Orpik came into the mix again. Orpik only had 19 points all season but with his 21 minutes of ice time per game he found his way into 4th in blocks and 3rd in hits making him a solid fantasy option that would otherwise typically be bypassed.      If you are worried about being able to do accurate research or getting too in depth, fear not, as Yahoo’s excellent fantasy platform instantly adds whatever categories you add to your league on their player lists. This will enable you to find hidden gems like Martin, Wingels, Russell, or Orpik with little effort, while adding to the depth of your fantasy player pool and a little variety to your draft. All while honoring the role player who’s value to the team is often overlooked. This year we are adding short-handed points, so stay tuned to PrimePucks.com to get my feedback on the value of that category…    -Kelly Bowler PrimePucks.com