Fantasy Hockey Mid-Point Trends and Pretends 16.0 (NHL Power Rankings)

Post All-Star Break. As we head into the All-Star break in Nashville I'm excited to see how the new platform of each Division's All-Stars facing off each other will unfold. Obviously the skills competition is lots of a fun as well. I can still fondly remember the likes of Mike Gartner flying around the ice in the Fastest Skater competition, Ray Bourque going 4/4 in back to back years in the accuracy competition and Al Iafrate toping 100MPH with A WOODEN STICK. It's a contrivance but as long as you go into the event prepared for that it's a display that these players don't otherwise get to show in such a splendor. The players spend hundreds of hours each year on the ice and there is downtime where they are honing skills and working on their hands or feet, here is the display of those things. The only other feed you get for such feats are some of the amazing youtube clips that they produce.

For those of you that play Fantasy Baseball, have you had a player who participated in home run derby and watched him fall off the edge as the wear and tear from the event takes its toll over the next few weeks? This article is a dedication to the players in post All-Star break efforts. The following looks at point production post All-Star break.

The group was collected using the top 50 scorers in each year from the All-Star break on over the last 3 years.

Players you can trust post All-Star Break:

1. Only two players have ranked in the top 10 in post All-Star break points over the last 3 years and they come as no surprise: Alexander Ovechkin (1^st, 10^th and 3^rd from 2013-2015 for a net total of 123 points) and Sidney Crosby (3^rd, 5^th, and 10^th from 2013-2015 for a net total of 116 points).

2. Players who have two top ten years in the last three: Taylor Hall (2013 and 2014) at 10^th and 5^th for a net 77 points, Nicklas Backstrom (8^th in 2013, 10^th, in 2014 and 15^th in 2015 for a net total of 107points) and Jamie Benn (3^rd in 2014 and 1^st in 2015).

3. Players who ranked in top twenty rank in two of the last three years: John Tavares (16^th in 2013 and 2^nd in 2015), Claude Giroux (13^th in 2013 and 1^st in 2014), Ryan Getzlaf (10^th in 2013, 20^th in 2014), Max Pacioretti (10^th in 2014 and 19^th in 2015), Phil Kessel (4^th in 2013 and 20^th in 2014), Ryan O'Reilly (17^th in 2014 and 19^th in 2015) AND Gabriel Landeskog (solid pick up here) with 20^th in 2014 and 15^th in 2015.

4. Others who show strong second halfs: Anze Kopitar (23^rd, 17^th and 33^rd between 2013-2015 for a total 3 year ranking of 5^th with 96points, Blake Wheeler (30^th, 10^th and 47^th between 2013-2015 for a total 3 year ranking of 7^th with 92points), and Matt Duchene (26^th in 2013, 24^th in 2014 and 40^th in 2015 for a net total of 7^th place with 92points.

5. If you look at plus/minus to factor in who works well but might not be finding the net, here are your top 5 players in +/- post All-Star break over the last three years: Brad Marchand (+40), Jonathan Toews (+38), Derek Stephan (+35), Max Pacioretty (+34) and Sidney Crosby (+30).

Players you can't trust post All-Star Break:

1. Steven Stamkos has traditionally STRUGGLED post All-Star break, while he finished as the 5^th best player in 2013 with 49points, he was 51^st and 33^rd over the next two years not breaking above 27 points in either year. If there is much stock left in your league and it's not a keeper league, consider trading him.

2. Similarly - Tyler Seguin has not even registered in the top fifty during 2 of the last 3 years (2013 and 2015) while the other year (2014) he was 2^nd. Patrick Kane ranked 8^th in 2013 and did not crack the top fifty the last 2 years, obviously this year might be different as he is playing the best he has in his career. For these three these players when they are red hot they keep going to chase the points but otherwise, they tire and their points taper off.

3. Four players did not rank in 2013, 2014 and tied for a 33^rd ranking in 2015: Marian Hossa, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Roman Jose and TJ Oshie. Vladimir Tarasenko was worse ranking above 50^th in 2013 and 2014 and ranking 40^th in 2015.

4. These three players all fell outside the top 50 in 2013 and 2015 and ranked 10^th in 2014: Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Nathan Mackinnon.

5. This will come as no surprise to anyone who saw his historically bad stat line last year with this but Alexander Ovechkin (-18) has the WORST +/- post All-Star break amongst all of the players who qualified. The other bottom four included: PA Parenteau (-15), Patrick Marleau (-11), Jason Spezza (-10) and Matt Duchene (-97).

2013 - 2015 Post All-Star points and Rankings - Ranked by most to least points (disclaimer - points were not added if they didn't sit within the top 50 on a given year)