St. Louis Blues players to target in fantasy hockey

The 2015-16 NHL season is quickly approaching and with it comes another year of fantasy hockey. The virtual game allows hockey fans to root for players they’d normally despise and learn more about other teams around the league. If you’re not familiar with the St. Louis Blues – and maybe even if you are – here’s a list of players worth owning in fantasy hockey.

Now, before diving into the players who could help carry you to a title, it’s important to understand a few basics. For starters, every fantasy hockey league is different. The statistics tracked will vary tremendously. Before drafting your team, it should go without saying that you need to be aware of the statistics the league tracks.

With that being said, the players below are ones who would fair well in a mostly standard five-by-five league which tracks Goals, Assists, Points, Shots and Penalty Minutes. For goalies, stats such as Wins, Saves, GAA, Save Percentage and Shutouts would be tracked. These could vary, but you get the idea.

In deep fantasy hockey leagues (lots of teams and large rosters), almost every Blues skater might carry some sort of relevance, but this list points out the biggest contributors.

Forwards

Vladimir Tarasenko

This one needs no explanation. Draft this guy by any means necessary.

David Backes

Backes is a player who is capable of producing across multiple categories. He’ll score goals, throw his body around and spend plenty of time in the penalty box. In the world of fantasy hockey, Backes is a rare talent who will help your squad out in several ways.

Backes’ 26 goals, 104 penalty minutes and 227 hits place him in elite territory as far as fantasy goes.

Alexander Steen

Steen shoots the puck. A lot. He had 223 shots last season and, barring an injury, should surpass 200 again this season. When you shoot the puck that often, good things tend to happen. Steen will consistently fire the puck which will help your team’s shot total and other offensive categories.

Jaden Schwartz

Young talent is always drafted early in fantasy hockey and Schwartz is no exception to the rule. Offensively, the best may still be ahead for Schwartz and that’s an exciting possibility as he tallied 28 goals and 35 assists in 2014-15. The lone drawback here is that he’s almost never in the penalty box. While that’s good news for the Blues, it’s bad news for fantasy owners seeking penalty minutes.

Troy Brouwer

Like Backes, it’s the fact Brouwer can help in multiple areas which gives him an inflated value in fantasy hockey compared to real life. Last year with the Capitals he scored 21 goals and threw 206 hits. If hits/checks is a category in your league, Brouwer is a guy you may want to grab in the middle of a draft.

Paul Stastny

Stastny disappointed last year in fantasy hockey and many owners ended up keeping him on their bench or cutting the forward entirely by the time the year concluded. His 16 goals and 30 assists were the definition of mediocre last season. This year he has a lot to prove (though he did last year too) and he might benefit if he actually sees time on the top line.

Defense

Kevin Shattenkirk

Like Tarasenko, this one shouldn’t require an explanation. Shattenkirk suffered an injury which limited him to just 56 games. Prior to that, he was a major player in the Norris conversation. When healthy, Shattenkirk might be the Blues’ best defenseman and he has the numbers to prove it.

Alex Pietrangelo

Overall, Pietrangelo wasn’t at his best in 2014-15. That fact aside, he still scored a total of 46 points which is an impressive line from the defensive position. If last year was a down year and a rebound season is incoming, fantasy owners will have no issue drafting Pietrangelo early.

Goalies

Both St. Louis netminders are worth owning as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into on draft day. Since both Brian Elliott and Jake Allen are capable of holding down the crease, the Blues have maintained what amounts to a rough 50-50 split. Elliott saw more minutes in 2014-15, but Allen may earn more appearances this year.

In summary, if you take a St. Louis netminder you also need to roster a goalie who owns a bigger percentage of their team’s starts. The split time between Elliott and Allen can be too unpredictable to rely on as your team’s #1 goalie.