February Fantasy Hockey Rankings: Left Wings

by Diomedes7 on Feb 13, 2012 7:37 PM EST in Fantasy Player Rankings

Max Pacioretty celebrates his first goal of the game against the New York Islanders on February 9th. He'd go on to score 2 more for the HT. Pacioretty has an amazing 11 goals in his last 13 games.

Kovalchuk Rockets into Top 3; Hartnell into Top 10; and Pacioretty Sizzles

Over the past month, no LW has been hotter than James Neal. He's now surpassed Daniel Sedin as the #1 LW based on YTD numbers, and his trajectory is up whereas Sedin is sort of flat to declining a bit. No knock on Daniel Sedin, but Neal has earned this after sitting in the 2-hole for several months.

This will be the final month for in-season rankings as next month we'll only have a few weeks left in the regular season schedule. We hope these rankings help you negotiate deals ahead of the trade deadline. Remember: If you're not in 1st place any deal that doesn't get done only helps the #1 team stay ahead of the pack.

Left Wing Rankings -->> Top 30

1. Pittsburgh Penguins James Neal, LW/RW (2)

2. Vancouver Canucks Daniel Sedin, LW (1)

3. New Jersey Devils Ilya Kovalchuk, LW (9)

4. Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Sharp, LW/C (3)

5. Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin, LW (4)

Note: Left Wings are ranked for their expected performance from this point to the end of the 2011-2012 season using standard scoring league categories: Goals, Assists, Power Play Points, Shots on Goal, Plus/Minus, Penalty Minutes, and Average Time on Ice. Last month's ranking is indicated in parentheses.

6. New Jersey Devils Zach Parise, LW (6)

7. Vancouver Canucks Ryan Kesler, LW/C (5)

8. Dallas Stars Jamie Benn, LW/C (8)

9. Boston Bruins Milan Lucic, LW (11)

10. Philadelphia Flyers Scott Hartnell, LW (14)

11. New Jersey Devils Patrik Elias, LW/C (12)

12. Buffalo Sabres Thomas Vanek, LW (7)

13. Edmonton Oilers Taylor Hall, LW (10)

14. Toronto Maple Leafs Joffrey Lupul, LW/RW (16)

15. Detroit Red Wings Henrik Zetterberg, LW/C (13)

16. Montreal Canadiens Max Pacioretty, LW (27)

17. San Jose Sharks Patrick Marleau, LW (18)

18. Boston Bruins Brad Marchand, LW/C (17)

19. Columbus Blue Jackets Rick Nash, LW/RW (15)

20. New York Islanders Matt Moulson, LW (25)

21. Phoenix Coyotes Ray Whitney, LW (28)

22. Winnipeg Jets Evander Kane, LW (19)

23. Colorado Avalanche Gabriel Landeskog, LW (26)

24. Pittsburgh Penguins Chris Kunitz, LW (21)

25. San Jose Sharks Ryane Clowe, LW (20)

26. Anaheim Ducks Bobby Ryan, LW (24)

27. Carolina Hurricanes Jeff Skinner, LW (23)

28. St Louis Blues David Perron , LW (off)

29. Dallas Stars Steve Ott, LW (29)

30. Andrew Ladd, LW (off)

On the bubble: Brenden Morrow, Milan Michalek, Tuomo Ruutu, Clarke MacArthur

**Re: position designations--if a player is listed with dual eligibility of W/C, he will be ranked among the wings.
If he is listed as a LW/RW he will be ranked at the position where he sees/has seen the most ice time.

***ESPN continues to add dual position eligibility, however, I am not updating as we'd be left with very few pure centres. It is a bit arbitrary, but should also improve one's ability to make player comparisons (by dividing the forwards out somewhat evenly).

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Comments

Couture?

Is he on the C list instead? He’s got LW eligibility on Yahoo. Or is he just not good enough?

by team barlie on Feb 13, 2012 7:58 PM EST reply actions

he’s on the Centre list
was late to receive wing eligibilty, so left him there.

by truculence is a virtue on Feb 13, 2012 8:59 PM EST up reply actions

yes, he’s on the C list.
explained in the footnote at the bottom:

***ESPN continues to add dual position eligibility, however, I am not updating as we’d be left with very few pure centres. It is a bit arbitrary, but should also improve one’s ability to make player comparisons (by dividing the forwards out somewhat evenly).

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by Diomedes7 on Feb 13, 2012 10:32 PM EST up reply actions

My bad, I didn’t read that far. Double asterisked notes are one thing… TRIPLE asterisks, well that just makes me dizzy and I give up.

by team barlie on Feb 14, 2012 2:07 AM EST up reply actions

Abundantly reasonable

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by Diomedes7 on Feb 14, 2012 6:37 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

James Neal at #1 seems weird. I get where you’re coming from but I would probably rank him after Parise.

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by jaymeyer on Feb 13, 2012 9:40 PM EST reply actions

I hear you, Jay.
Just kept staring at the #s and seeing him on Malkin’s line and thinking I won’t trade him for anyone (for any other LW).

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by Diomedes7 on Feb 13, 2012 10:34 PM EST up reply actions

when you're Superman's Wingman

there are perks, along with Supermodels and plenty of villains, you get to be the top rated LW… for now.

Parise is coming on, but so long as Kovy is listed at LW he is the better fantasy point producer and could be #1 by the end of the year.

Ray Whitney is probably too low here, if I were in a single year league, in need of points, I would trade several of the players above him (Lupol, Marleau, Nash, Hall, Moulson, Marchand) for him, well maybe not Hall.
Steve Ott ??? I’d rather have Alexei Ponikarovsky, I assume Heatley, Franzen and Versteeg are RW

by MasterOfPuppets on Feb 13, 2012 10:54 PM EST up reply actions

while I’m at it I would trade a lot of the guys ranked above, for your #28 David Perron, while I understand the ranking, I don’t know that people actually understand what a good hockey player this kid is.

by MasterOfPuppets on Feb 13, 2012 11:15 PM EST up reply actions