Seven Good Value Players for Sporting News Fantasy Playoffs Leagues

As yesterday’s Sporting News Playoff Tips post mentioned, there are certain things you need to look for when putting together your initial team. Aside from general stategies concerning player selection, the specific players you choose and how you manage the salary is probably the most important thing to consider. Here are seven players (in no particular order) who produce at a good clip but won’t eat up as much salary as some other bigger names might.

Photo by: Resolute

1. Michael Cammalleri – Cammalleri finished the regular season with a bang, notching 2 goals and an assist and a +3 rating and totaling a very nice 139 TSNP against the rival Oilers. The playoff-tested Calgary Flames have given problems to opposition in the playoffs several years in a row now and it is likley they will do the same again this season. Although Cammalleri has no NHL playoff experience himself, his teammates certainly do. Iginla, Kipper and company have been to the finals and know how to win in the playoffs and hopefully their knowledge will help guide Calgary’s leading goal scorer this season. At just under $4M, Mike is a good value because he scores 38.1 TSNP/G, which is among the leaders around the league.

2. Patrick Elias – Elias averaged 40.4 TSNP/G over the regular season and even though he did miss some games towards the end. Hopefully he utilized the rest and will be strong to start the playoffs off for the Devs. Elias is a good value for the points he produces while only costing $4.09M to start. If you think that NJ will take out the streaking Hurricanes, then Elias is a good bet at wing.

3. Jamie Langenbrunner – Elias’ teammate Jamie Langenbrunner had a fantastic regular season playing on a line with breakout young studs Parise and Zajac. Langenbrunner is an even better value than Elias, as he only will set you back $2.55M but still averages 37.7 TSNP/G, almost as much as Elias but costing over a million and a half TSND less. Langenbrunner should continue his production into the second season and may be an even better buy than Elias.

4. Martin Havlat – The oft-injured Marty Havlat finished out the season with a solid 81 games played and 77 points total, along with a very good +29 rating. Havlat is listed at $4.09M and averaged 37 TSNP/G over the entire season, but even better he averaged a nice 47.9 over the course of the last month of the regular season, which is among the upper echelon forwards in the NHL. Havlat has seen playoff time in the past with the former powerhouse Ottawa Senators but is now on the nascent but perhaps playoff naive Chicago Blackhawks. Playoff hockey can get rough and tumble and their first-round opponents, the Calgary Flames, certainly can and will play this style so it remains to be seen if Havlat can take a continous pounding game in and game out at this point. Good thing for Havlat and the Hawks is that Calgary’s top shut-down blue liner, Robyn Regehr, will miss the entire first round of the playoffs, which certainly boosts Chicago’s chances to move on.

5. David Backes – Another player who puts up good fantasy production and does not cost much is David Backes of the Blues. He averaged a solid 34 TSNP/G over the course of the regular season and is listed at $2M even. The Blues have been great the past several weeks and go into the playoffs as the sixth seed to face the Northwest Division winning Canucks. This should be a solid series and may go either way, the way the Blues have been playing. However, the obvious caveat here is to be wary of scoring on Vancouver’s Luongo. Luongo can and probably will steal a game or two all by himself in the first round and this would be detrimental to any St. Louis players you may have on your fantasy team. However, in Backes’ case, he contributes in many ways for fantasy managers out there, especially in the PIMs department. Normally, straight up fisticuffs are limited in the playoffs but if an opportunity comes up and Backes obliges, your fantasy team will certainly be rewarded.

6. Tim Thomas – For the regular season, Timmy Thomas was the highest scoring player in terms of points per game played. Thomas averaged 68/G is followed by superstar scoring machine Alexander Ovechkin who notched 64.5/G. Out of the top 10, the only forward to be seen in average points per game is AO. This really tells you the importance of goalies in the SportingNews system. The majority of non-Habs fans seem to be picking Boston to win the series, so if you feel the same, Tim Thomas is probably a solid bet to have as your goalie on your playoff team. At $5.93M he’s not exactly a bargain but his average points garnered per game make him more valuable than other goalies out there.

Photo by: Dan4th Nicholas

7. Michael Ryder – Another Boston player with good value is Ryder, who averaged 33.9 TSNP/G and only costs $2.08M. Pictured above with a couple other good value Bruins in Savard and Lucic, Ryder is one of the best bargains on this list in terms of how much he costs; Ryder could be a nice winger to have in any playoff format out there. Ryder just barely missed the 30 goal mark this season and did miss some games but the B’s look to continue their strong regular season performance and bring it into the second season. If you’re part of the majority and expect Boston to advance multiple rounds, then Ryder could be a good value, both in the short term due to his low cost and also in the long run with his potential production if they go deep.