ULTIMATE FANTASY POOL GUIDE 2019-20 THE HOCKEY NEWS | 5 |

DEPARTMENTS

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UFA GUIDE

Some big names, such as Jake Gardiner

and Joe Thornton, were still on the open

market when we went to press July 19

NHL STATS

All the numbers you need to know from

the 2018-19 NHL season are at your

fingertips, including special-teams stats

SPECIALTY STATS

Special category stats, such as hits,

blocked shots and faceoff leaders, are

identified in our top 20 leaders section

CHECKLIST

This is the key section to use on draft day,

with players ranked by projected points

and goalies ranked by projected wins

WORKSHEET

Adjacent to the checklist pages is an

easy-to-use worksheet for you to make

notes and jot down your selections

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ASK THE EXPERTS

Our editorial team tackles 20 juicy

fantasy-pool questions for 2019-

BY THE HOCKEY NEWS STAFF

MOCK DRAFT

To get a better sense of how early some

players will go in your pool, consult this

200-player deep dive BY SAM MCCAIG

PROSPECT TIMELINE

Future stars are always in the pipeline.

Keeper-league poolies need to know

when they’ll arrive BY RYAN KENNEDY

VINTAGE FANTASY LEAGUE

The venerable PPA fantasy league out of

St. Mary’s, Ont., has been around since

the mid-1970s BY DAVID LYNCH

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FIRST WORD

Winning your fantasy league often comes

down to picking up key free agents early

in the season BY BRIAN COSTELLO

LAST WORD

Consider fine-tuning your pool to have

realistic stat categories. It’s truer to life.

You’ll be glad you did BY MATT LARKIN

DRAFT TIPS

Pool prep work has changed over time.

It’s all about league-wide trends. We

must adjust BY MURRAY TOWNSEND

FAB FRESHMEN

Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko top this

list, but don’t forget to consider the

whole rookie crop BY JARED CLINTON

BUYER BELIEVE/BEWARE

Some great performances from 2018-

are harbingers of more to come. Others

are probably one-offs BY MATT LARKIN

COLUMNS

FEATURES

OVECHKIN: WILL NEWTON/GETTY IMAGES;

MCDAVID: MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES;

TAVARES: TAVARES: MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES

ON THE COVER

CONTENTS

SKATER & GOALIE FANTASY BIOS

Astute fantasy hockey-pool GMs do their research before their drafts by scouring our in-depth profiles of key forwards, defensemen and goalies. The key to winning your

league is making value picks, nabbing players at opportune times in the selection process. Our 315 profile boxes include stats, analysis by longtime prognosticator Murray

Townsend and labels identifying rising stars, value picks, red flags and key contributors in specific scoring categories. BY MURRAY TOWNSEND

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FEATURE

STORY