#stereanalysis

PART 1: SALARY CAP TRACKERS

PuckPedia: The New CapFriendly

PuckPedia is the closest replacement to CapFriendly currently available. It contains salary cap information for all teams and players, draft pick information, several calculators including a buyout calculator and a pick value calculator, agent information, and more. They also run PuckDoku! The biggest strike against PuckPedia is its lack of simulators (Armchair GM, mock draft, or trade simulators); however, in the wake of the CapFriendly news, PuckPedia shared that an Armchair GM simulator is under active development. 07/05 Update: PuckGM is here! You can also react to prospective PuckGMs (thumbs up, thumbs down, laugh, think emojis).

CapSized: Labor of Love

Referred to me by @nonslipdoormat and billed as a "solo female developer's project" (nonslipdoormat IS said developer!), CapSized is a site that's designed similarly to CapFriendly. It has some features other sites lack, such as trade histories going back to 2003 (with some entries as old as 1964!) and a detailed transactions page again stretching YEARS into the past. The more you poke around, the more cool things you uncover. Its primary purpose is to be a "visual database", but calculators and an NHL GM mode are on the list of future additions. I'll be dead honest, I think this is my favorite cap-checker site because of all the extra utilities. Super excited to see where this project goes!

Referred to me by @reavenedges-lies. A "baby site" that has some of the basics of salary cap info, plus a buyout calculator, qualifying offer calculator, and trade proposal maker. The trade proposal maker is prone to error and seems to only be useful for graphics. It can be a useful site for some, but it would not be my first choice.

CapWages: CapFriendly Lite

Another alternative to PuckPedia that mimics CapFriendly in design and is more intuitive for users going directly from CapFriendly to an alternative site. Like PuckPedia, it now features a GM mode, but the GM mode is in beta and is not fully functional (it only shows contracts currently existing at the NHL level). Nevertheless, for checking salary cap info, it is very good and I recommend it. Also now has a buyout calculator.

CapSpace: Young Gun

BenchWarmers: Greenhorn

Similar to CapSpace but perhaps a little better in the design department. I like how, if you don't have an account, it acts like you're Kyle Dubas and has you watching Toronto and Carolina. Has a few neat stats (like "core four" which shows how much the four most expensive players are making) that I haven't seen easily replicated on other sites, but functionality is rather limited outside of that, which is why it's also not my first choice.

Spotrac: Another Salary Cap Checker

An alternative to PuckPedia for salary cap information. However, it lacks much of the information and functionality of PuckPedia or most other sites listed here.

PART 2: ADVANCED STATS

NaturalStatTrick: The Holy Grail of Stats

NaturalStatTrick, or NatStat for short, is a site that contains just about any stat you can think of for any team or player. It has a learning curve but is generally understood to be the most reliable stat tracker available for free. You can even view stats for individual games on it!

MoneyPuck: DTWoMeter and More

You know it from the Deserve-to-Win-o-Meter or its playoff odds rings, but MoneyPuck has a lot of useful data as well if you do a little browsing. Generally, I've heard that MoneyPuck is less accurate than NatStat, but is easier to use, especially on mobile.

HockeyViz: "If I Ever Sell, I Failed"

Home of the Simple Hockey Charts, HockeyViz has a visual for just about every stat out there. You've almost certainly seen some of them before. Most of them are completely free to the public! They're super useful for visualizing stats as more than "just numbers", allowing you to see exactly WHERE things are happening on the ice.

HockeyStatCards: GameScore Kings

Again, you've probably seen HockeyStatCards's GameScore charts. Using data from NatStat (see above) and an algorithm created by Dom Luszczyszyn, it provides a simple GameScore number that tells you whether a player is having a positive or negative impact on the ice for every game in the NHL.

PART 3: SPECIALIZED SITES

NHL Armchair GM: Building Rosters

This site allows you to Armchair GM a roster. Notably, it has a steeper learning curve than CapFriendly and does not have a forum or other way to easily save and publicize your Armchair GM moves. However, it can be useful to make Armchair GMs and have visuals for them.

NHL Entry Draft: With the First Overall Pick...

This site contains a ton of draft resources, from a mock draft simulator to scouting reports. Definitely a useful site for those who are interested in the entry draft. I've seen a couple of mock draft sites, but this one seems to have by far the easiest and arguably most expansive way to use it.

NHL Injury Viz: Rulers of LTIR

Here, you can explore the relationship between the injuries of players, their cap hits, and how teams did without them. Very useful when you're arguing that a certain player going down doomed the team.

PART 4: MORE TYPES OF DATA

HockeyReference: The Good Old Days

Hockey Reference is best used for surface level data about older players. It has some trivia sections as well, for if you ever wanted to know all players wearing certain jersey numbers, sharing a certain birthday, or hailing from Alaska.

EliteProspects: Every League Imaginable

Want to know the roster of a third-tier league in Quebec? EliteProspects has you covered. Literally every league on the face of the Earth, currently existing and not, EliteProspects has info on. Any player you can possibly name, EliteProspects has their stats from atom hockey all the way to the end of their career.

HockeyDB: Another Spot for Stats

HockeyDB, referred to me by @reavenedges-lies, is another solid site for looking up basic hockey stats. Also has a ton of leagues, similar to EliteProspects. Has a hockey card feature as well that shows you cards featuring the player you've looked up, which is neat!

PART 5: FORUMS

HFBoards: Hockey Forums

Probably the most well-known hockey forum out there. If you want to talk puck on a more forum-like site, similar to CapFriendly's forums, this is the one for you.

PART 6: CAPFRIENDLY ARCHIVES

SergeiFyodorov's CapFriendly FAQ Drive

Curated by @sergeifyodorov. Originally posted here and sent to me by @fellowshipofthegay. Archives of the CapFriendly FAQs!

🦆 - Anaheim flips a former Ranger at the trade deadline. Because let's face it: they're not going to be that good. Jacob Trouba would be a great add for a playoff team in need of a right-shot, physical defenseman, but Chris Kreider is also a prime target - if Anaheim makes him available. Ryan Strome, too, is an interesting case that could be moved for the right price.

🐻 - Boston is the most penalized team in the league, by minutes. A team that prides itself on its grit that's slowly backsliding out of relevancy is going to throw some hands - especially in the Atlantic.

🦬 - Buffalo fires its GM. Kevyn Adams has been given one task: to get the Sabres back to the playoffs. He's failed miserably at every turn and has been generally unable to buld a good team. The recent trading-away of JJ Peterka underscores that Buffalo just isn't on a path to contend soon and players are aware of that. I'm not sure why Adams hasn't been canned yet, honestly. Maybe it's just apathy from the owners.

🌪️ - Carolina puts the most shots on goal of the league. Not a super bold prediction, considering Carolina's playstyle, but other teams, notably Edmonton and Florida, also put a ton of shots on net.

🧥 - Columbus sees the team and especially Zach Werenski reach another level, breaking 90 points and winning the Norris. I don't want to say 100 - that's too bold, even for me - but if it happens, I called it.

🔥 - Calgary does not trade Rasmus Andersson during the season and he walks in free agency. Andersson seems to be on the way out in Calgary, especially for a team that's trying to rebuild, but he was famously on the trading block last year and the deals fell through. Calgary generally seems to have a tough time with trades. I assume Andersson is gone by the trade deadline, honestly, but if Calgary can't get a return they think is good enough...

🦅 - Chicago's leading point scorer is not Connor Bedard. It might be Frank Nazar. It could be Ryan Donato or Teuvo Teravainen. But it won't be Bedard.

🏔️ - Colorado takes home the Hart Trophy at the hands of Nathan MacKinnon. Landeskog's back. The Avs are back. High-end talent is the name of the game. Let's ride.

⭐ - Dallas wins the President's Trophy. Their team has consistently had very strong regular seasons, plus, a full year of Mikko Rantanen will pay dividends in the standings.

🪽 - Detroit scores the most powerplay goals in the league. Detroit doesn't have a ton going for it, but its powerplay is definitely a bright spot. Plus, they will likely have a lot of opportunity to capitalize on that powerplay, given the rash of enforcers infecting the Atlantic.

💧 - Edmonton struggles a lot more than anyone's expecting to start the season, in part because of the wear on a lot of their core players, and Connor Ingram is getting starts by the Olympic break. Stuart Skinner, meet Jack Campbell.

🐈 - Florida clinches the playoffs in a non-wildcard seed. The internet seems convinced Florida is about to miss the playoffs, but they're still an incredibly strong team even down Barkov and Tkachuk. Plus, the Atlantic is full of movement this year. I think they're going to be the Atlantic 2 or 3 seed.

👑 - Los Angeles sends off its captain by breaking the timeloop and beating the Oilers in the playoffs. Absolute cinema. (Plus, have you seen the Oilers' winger situation?)

🌲 - Minnesota takes home the Calder at the hands of Zeev Buium. Ivan Demidov is the runaway favorite right now, but I'm not super convinced that he's going to have a Calder-worthy season. Plus, Buium is being handed the keys to a powerplay featuring a recently-extended Kirill Kaprizov and company. I could absolutely see him pulling a Lane Hutson and finishing with 60+ points on the season.

🎖️ - Montreal, speaking of Lane Hutson, sees him finish with the most ice time per game of all Habs skaters. In order to be a top defenseman and make top defenseman dollar, Hutson will have to show he's able to contribute 22, 23, even 25 minutes a night. I don't doubt that he's capable of it - but also, he doesn't penalty kill, which takes away from his TOI. (Or play much defense...)

😈 - New Jersey wins the playoffs in the East and advances to their first Cup Final since 2012. Every team in the East looks to have a weakness now - even Florida, who, while they should get Matthew Tkachuk and hopefully Sasha Barkov back for the playoffs, might have to repay their debts from three consecutive Cup Finals. As long as New Jersey manages to stay healthy, I can absolutely see them cleaning up a weak Metro. (They were statistically better than the Canes last year with one regular healthy defenseman and no Jack Hughes).

🎸 - Nashville keeps Brady Martin on the roster past his 9-game tryout. CHL players are allowed to play up to 9 NHL games a year and still be eligible to return to the CHL - this should be the case with Martin, who should play 9 games with the Preds and then return to the Soo Greyhounds, but, considering Nashville is already penciling him in at 1C, they might do the crazy thing and just keep him in the NHL the whole year, reasoning that he's at least physically capable of hanging with the big leaguers full-time.

🏝️ - New York sees Matthew Schaefer play a full 82-game season. Load management is a thing for a lot of rookies, as is injury, but I feel like Schaefer's in a position where he can play the full season with the proverbial training wheels coming off. Plus, without Noah Dobson, someone's going to need to step up on the backend. Preferably not named Tony DeAngelo.

🛡️ - New York re-signs Artemi Panarin for a higher AAV than his current $11.6M contract. Russians are famously fierce negotiators (see: Kaprizov) and, without Panarin, the Rangers will be in a MUCH worse position than they currently are in. I don't see a world where Panarin extends in New York on the cheap, given how much leverage he has. Maybe he goes back to Chicago or Columbus - they've got a lot of cap space, after all, and exciting young stars. But I think that New York will simply have to pony up and pay the Breadman all the dough.

💂 - Ottawa puts up the most hits on the year. The Sens play a hard-nosed game and, as part of that, lay the body a lot. Last year, Florida ran away with this stat, but I think Ottawa will have them beat this year.

🍊 - Philadelphia sweeps the series versus its rival the Penguins. They play four games this year; that means the Flyers have to win all 4. I don't really know if this'll happen - I suspect the Penguins will take one if not two, just because of the whole "winning four games" thing - but I think the Flyers will keep it close in every game. 

🐧 - Pittsburgh wins the 2026 draft lottery. That team is going nowhere fast, and the Dan Muse hiring underscores the focus on rebuilding. Plus, with a "generational" talent in Gavin McKenna at stake, it'd be poetry for Sidney Crosby to begin to pass the torch that was passed onto him by Mario Lemieux. Yeah, Sid isn't being traded. Come on, guys.

🐙 - Seattle allows Kaapo Kakko to flourish and he sets a career high with 45+ points on the season. A bit risky, considering Kakko is already out with a broken hand, but he seemed to hit his groove in Seattle and, when he returns, could easily have a strong stretch of play.

🦈 - San Jose watches its core take a step forward - while they're still going to be bad this year, there will be at least 3 players who score 70 points and Macklin Celebrini will be point-per-game. It's a stretch, but I think they can do it.

🎵 - St Louis's backup, Joel Hofer, has a higher save percentage than its starter, Jordan Binnington. Well... this has happened each year for the last three years, so I don't know how hot of a take it is. But I think Hofer might be able to take a larger and larger role in the Blues' crease. Plus, good goalies are hard to come by, and if a team in dire need of an upgrade in net makes the Blues an offer they can't refuse...

⚡ - Tampa Bay collects a third consecutive Art Ross via Nikita Kucherov scoring 130+ points. Kucherov has been ridiculous in the regular season - in 2023-24, he had 100 assists on top of 44 goals. In fact, he hasn't scored less than 100 points in a full season since 2017-18, and, even in 2019-20 and 2021-22, he was still on pace for 100+ points. There's no sign that he's ready to slow down just yet.

🍁 - Toronto trades Easton Cowan. Toronto doesn't have a ton of assets - if and when the trade deadline comes, they're going to need to give something good up to shore up some of their roster holes. Maybe a Bryan Rust from Pittsburgh would be a good target. In either case, besides Cowan and a 2028 1st, the cupboard is pretty bare. If it's a sellers' market again like it was last year, Toronto might need to move Cowan to get the win-now piece they're hoping for.

🦣 - Utah makes the playoffs with Vezina-candidate goaltending from Karel Vejmelka. "Veggie" is often overlooked because he's playing for a team that historically hasn't been that great, but, with the moves that Utah is making and the team in front of him, allowing a spotlight to be pointed his way, I think that Vejmelka will receive serious votes for the Vezina.

🐋 - Vancouver gets its shit together. There will be significantly less drama than in the past year, in part because Jim Rutherford will shut up, and, buoyed by a resurgence of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Quinn Hughes as well as newcomers like Jonathan Lekkerimaki, they will, if not make the playoffs, then be in the wildcard race down to the final days of the season. (Too bold?)

⚔️ - Vegas makes it further in the playoffs than Toronto does. That's not super bold of a take, but critically: Mitch Marner beats his "not showing up in big games" stigma and scores a series-winning goal. (Or at least assists on one.)

🛩️ - Winnipeg sees Kyle Connor put up his first 50+ goal season. Fresh off his contract extension, there's definitely pressure to perform, plus, with Nikolaj Ehlers gone, someone's gotta put the puck in the net.

🏛️ - Washington has Alex Ovechkin put up 300+ shots on goal and 35+ goals. Ovi doesn't seem to be slowing down any, but he seems to be a little more selective with his shots now. This, plus his time on ice slowly going down, has led to him not breaking 300+ shots on goal for the past 3 years. But for his "last ride" (unless we hear otherwise), the team is going to try to give it to Ovi as much as possible.

And you know what? Let's do some more "general" predictions:

🏒 - We'll see a Four Nations final in the Olympic final, but this time America is going to beat Canada to take the gold.

🏒 - Pete DeBoer is employed by the end of the playoffs. I can't see a world where he isn't at the top of the list for any team that's firing their coach.

🏒 - I'm not going to predict playoff teams, but I will predict that exactly 4 teams will be in the playoffs that were not in the playoffs the year before. The average over the past few years is around 6, but I don't know if there's going to be as much moving and shaking this year.

🏒 - Speaking of the playoffs, I predict exactly 1 sweep all playoffs. League parity is increasing; even in those series last year that looked like obvious sweeps, the losing team rallied for at least one win.

🏒 - Expansion to 34 or even 36 teams will be officially approved by the NHL. Things are absolutely trending that way, and I would not be surprised if there were 36 teams by 2030 or so.

🏒 - There will be at least one trade done before December 20th for the purposes of doing a double retention at the trade deadline.

🏒 - Penn State does not make the Frozen Four. Despite McKenna and other top CHL talents moving to Penn State, I'm not sure if they're not going to suffer from a classic case of too many cooks. Plus, in college hockey, having a team with "superstars" often takes a backseat to those teams that are truly cohesive and play as a unit. Just go ask Ryan Leonard how his college hockey playoffs went...

🏒 - The Walter Cup will be won by a new expansion team. PWHL Vancouver and Seattle have rosters that are absolutely stacked, in part due to the expansion rules, and they should be favorites to win it all.

Now, let's make this into a tag game! Inspired by van puckpocketed, blame him LOL. Obviously, I'm not going to ask you to make 32+ predictions, but make 3-5 "bold" predictions about the new season, tag me so I get to read them all, and tag some friends to join in. (It doesn't have to be NHL either - college hockey, women's hockey, minor leagues, Euro leagues, whatever you've got ideas about! And if you're down to write 32+ predictions... go for it.)

I'm going to tag a bunch of people, sorry hahaha... @puckpocketed, @barkov, @sashabarkov, @callsign-bubbles, @tapedsleeves, @neonfretra, @endeus, @celenguini, @macktism, @starrynet, @korshrimpski, @wheelsnipecelebrini, @ittybittyjuice...

What are waivers?

Put most simply, waivers are a process that occurs when a team says to a player, "We don't want you in the NHL anymore, we're sending you to the AHL". Because of the CBA's (Collective Bargaining Agreement) Article 13, before they can do this, they have to put the player on the waiver wire, which is essentially a 24-hour-long period where any other team that wants that player to play for them in the NHL can claim them. The purpose of the waiver wire is to ensure that teams don't unfairly stash NHL-caliber players in the AHL, thereby paying them lesser salaries (this is the most important part - AHL salaries are generally about a tenth of NHL salaries) and not allowing them to play NHL games. Players that may not be getting a fair shot on one team can move to another, where they can be used more effectively - for instance, Eeli Tolvanen was waived by Nashville, picked up by Seattle, and now plays a key role on Seattle's third line. In fact, he scored Seattle's first-ever goal in the playoffs!

What happens once a player is put on the waiver wire?

If another team claims the player, they are claimed on waivers and are transferred to the other team. Notably, the other team must have the appropriate cap and roster space necessary to claim the player. An example here is Kasperi Kapanen, who was placed on waivers by Pittsburgh and was claimed by St Louis. His cap hit of $3.2m may have been prohibitive for other teams who could have wanted to claim him.

If multiple teams try to claim the player, the player goes to the team that submitted a claim which is the worst in the standings - if it's before November 1st of a new season year, it goes to the team that finished worst in the standings the year before, but if it's after November 1st, it goes to the team that is currently worst in the standings. Take Lassi Thomson, who was placed on waivers by Ottawa and claimed by Anaheim. If, for example, Toronto also submitted a claim, they would not have been awarded Thomson, as Anaheim has the worse standing.

If no other team claims the player, they clear waivers. When they do so, they can be reassigned to the NHL team's affiliate AHL team. Notably, not everyone who clears waivers is immediately reassigned - a player who clears waivers can stay with the NHL team instead (for example, if another player just got injured). They can be sent down to the AHL at a later time - they do not have to go through the waivers process again if they have played less than 10 NHL games (cumulative) or been on the roster for less than 30 days (cumulative) from the last time they cleared waivers. This can be used to a savvy GM's advantage to avoid putting players on the waiver wire.

Why is everyone getting waived right now?

At the beginning of the preseason, every player with an NHL contract, whether it be one-way (NHL only) or two-way (NHL and AHL), is invited to that team's training camp. This places them on the NHL preseason roster for that team. As training camp goes on and players get cut, they then must pass through waivers to go to the AHL. Unless, of course, they're waiver exempt.

What is waiver exemption and why is it important?

So you might already have noticed an issue with the waiver system - it's terrible for younger players. If solely the waiver rules we've discussed above existed, every player being sent to the AHL would have to go through waivers. This would include prospects who are signed to an NHL ELC (entry-level contract) but didn't make the cut for the season. Obviously, this is bad for teams - imagine drafting players who you know will be good for you in 2 or 3 years and then losing them all to the waiver wire. This is why waiver exemption exists.

Waiver exemption, to keep it simple, is a protection that certain players have that means they do not have to go through the waivers process to be reassigned to the AHL. The specific details of waiver exemption are a little complicated - let's take a look at the table to make it make more sense.

This table is either/or and is defined by the age when their NHL ELC was signed. A skater who signed their ELC as an 18-year-old is waiver exempt for either 5 years or 160 games played (including playoff games) at the NHL level. A skater who signed at 21 is exempt for either 3 years or 80 NHL games. Goalies have different requirements than skaters because they generally take longer to develop and don't play as many games.

There is a fairly common misconception that all players on their ELCs are automatically waiver exempt. This is false. The second a player hits the amount of games played for their age, they are immediately no longer waiver exempt. Usually, this doesn't occur until after the ELC is over, as most ELC players deal with injuries and healthy scratches, as well as not generally being given the reins to play on the NHL roster for the entire season. One notable example that disproves the "ELC means waiver exempt" conception is Dawson Mercer from New Jersey. Mercer signed his ELC as a 19-year-old in December of 2020. He has played all 82 games in the past 2 seasons (2021-22 & 2022-23) plus 12 playoff games for a total of 176 NHL games played. Under the games requirements, he is now no longer exempt from waivers, despite having one whole year left on his ELC.

For the 25+ category, upon playing a single NHL game, the player is waiver exempt for that entire season and that entire season only. Andrei Kuzmenko from Vancouver is a good example of that - last season, he signed his one-year ELC with Vancouver as a 27-year-old and could have been sent to the AHL at any time without going through waivers. (He was not, needless to say.)

There is one very important exception to the table: if an 18- or 19-year-old player plays 11 or more games with an NHL team in a single season, their waiver exemption is automatically cropped. For that season, and the next two, the player is waiver exempt, but after that, they are no longer exempt. This extends to the next three if the player in question is a goalie and not a skater. (To make it easier to understand, it's as if they jumped into the 20-year-old category.) However, 18- and 19-year-old prospects generally only play 9 games maximum at the NHL level in order to allow for the entry-level slide, allowing the contract to "slide" forward a year, letting teams keep the player on the ELC for an extra year and thus save money.

Are there any other ways a player can play in the AHL without going through waivers or being waiver exempt?

Yes, actually! There are two main exceptions - they're for conditioning loans.

First, what is a conditioning loan? A conditioning loan is a short-term reassignment to the AHL. There are two types of conditioning loans: the standard conditioning loan and the LTIR conditioning loan.

A standard conditioning loan, specified under the CBA 13.8, occurs when a player agrees to head down to the AHL for a few games to "wipe off the dust" on their game, so to speak. They're often used by players who have ended up as perennial healthy scratches on their NHL teams, so that they're able to jump in if there's an injury or other issue. Standard conditioning loans can last up to 14 days. One example of a standard conditioning loan is Shane Wright, who was sent to the AHL by Seattle very early in the season for conditioning, partially to bypass the requirement that the NHL has with the major junior CHL that would have required him to go back to the CHL were he officially reassigned from Seattle. Another is Nathan Beaulieu, who was sent to the AHL by Anaheim in January for a four-game stint.

An LTIR conditioning loan, specified under the CBA 13.9, occurs when a player coming off of LTIR agrees to head down to the AHL for a few games to "wipe off the dust" on their game, so to speak. These loans can only last 6 days or 3 games, whichever comes later, and the idea is to be able to figure out whether a player is able to return to form or requires more time to heal properly. For example, Travis Dermott was sent to the AHL by Vancouver in December to evaluate whether he was back to form after a concussion sustained in the preseason. He played one game in the AHL, then drew back into Vancouver's lineup for eleven games before going back on IR for the rest of the season due to the concussion repercussions. Notably, a team can only use one LTIR conditioning loan for each time a player is on LTIR.

What is emergency recall and why does it make a player waiver exempt?

Emergency recall occurs when a player on a team's NHL lineup is injured and the team can no longer ice a full squad because of it. (As a reminder, each team must carry 12 forwards, 6 defensemen, and 2 goalies. Usually, teams keep an extra forward and defenseman around as a healthy scratch in case of injuries, but some teams are pressed against the cap and cannot carry extra players.) In this case, they can call an AHL player (or multiple, at times) up on an "emergency" basis to fill in during the time that the NHL player is out. Once the NHL player is healthy again, the AHL player can either be transferred to a regular recall or gets sent down to their AHL team again. One example here is Akira Schmid, who was bouncing back and forth between Utica and New Jersey on emergency recalls every few weeks because Mackenzie Blackwood, one of New Jersey's two goaltenders, was constantly getting hurt.

It makes sense, then, why emergency recall would grant a player temporary waiver exemption status - it would be awful to have to recall a player from the AHL, have them in the NHL for a little bit, and then have to send them through waivers and get claimed when your roster player is healthy. However, if an emergency recall player plays in at least 10 NHL games, he loses his waiver exempt status under emergency recall (other forms of waiver exemption still apply).

What are unconditional waivers?

Unconditional waivers are different from regular waivers in what they do. Passing through unconditional waivers does not send you to the AHL. Instead, they are used by teams that want to buy out or terminate players' contracts, completely giving up their rights to the players. Players placed on unconditional waivers are almost never claimed because of this - only two players have ever been claimed off unconditional waivers.

Okay, hold on - what's the difference between a buyout and a termination?

A termination occurs when a player's contract is terminated. The player severs all ties to a team and does not continue to be paid by the team. The team does not incur any cap penalties from termination. There are two main types of termination.

The first type of termination is mutually-agreed-upon termination. In the case of Filip Zadina, who was recently terminated by Detroit, he made it clear that he would refuse to report to the AHL after being sent down on regular waivers. The team and Zadina then proceeded to terminate the contract so that Zadina would be free to negotiate a contract with another NHL team instead of playing for Detroit's AHL team, and so that Detroit would not incur any cap penalties from buying out Zadina. Another example is Lukas Sedlak, whose contract was terminated by Philadelphia when he made it clear to the team that he wanted to return to Europe to play. Philadelphia put Sedlak on unconditional waivers, terminated the contract, and Sedlak soon returned to his native Czechia to play for Pardubice.

The other, rarer type of termination is for material breach. Material breach termination is exemplified by Alex Galchenyuk, whose contract was terminated by Arizona after they became aware of the intoxicated driving incident involving Galchenyuk. Essentially, material breach is used when players are acting illegally, either against the law of the United States/Canada, or against the terms of their contract. The reason these terminations are so rare is twofold: Not only are hockey players generally going to try to avoid breaking the law, when they do, the player's association is usually going to investigate and file appeals and the like to try to secure their players the highest possible settlement despite the termination (and set a precedent so other teams are not encouraged to terminate contracts for material breach).

On the other hand, a buyout occurs when a player is released by a team, but the player continues to be paid by the team as per their contract. The team incurs cap penalties from buyouts - 1/3 of the contract value if the player is younger than 26 at the time of the buy-out, 2/3 of the value if the player is 26 or order. This penalty is spread across double the years left on the contract.

An aside - this is also where the idea of a "buyout-proof" contract comes in. A buyout-proof contract contains most of the salary being paid in the form of signing bonuses, which are paid in full even if the contract is bought out. (These contracts are also considered "lockout-proof", as, again, the signing bonus must be paid even if there is a lockout and no hockey is being played.) As an example of this, take a look at Auston Matthews's extension:

If the Leafs try to buy this contract out, they'd have to pay Matthews the entirety of the signing bonuses as well as 2/3 of the base salary, making the cap savings incredibly marginal and just not worth it to buy out. Thus, it's buyout-proof.

Is that everything I need to know about waivers?

The Scoring

Before you begin even thinking about your draft, make sure to check the scoring system in place in your fantasy league. Are you in a points or categories league?

Points are more standard, where different actions like goals, assists, and blocked shots are worth a different number of points and weighted accordingly. Categories instead count per action, with a focus on winning a majority of the categories. To explain, take this example: in a standard points league, a goal is 2 points and an assist is 1. In such a league, one goal and two assists is the same as four assists, points-wise. However, in categories, the 1G/2A combo wins the "goals" category, while the 0G/4A combo wins the "assists" category.

Additionally, check whether you're in a "roto" league. Most leagues play week-by-week, where each week you're given a new opponent to beat in either points or categories; roto leagues don't do this, instead having you play the entire season before tabulating up all the points and seeing who wins. This isn't to be confused with a "dynasty" or "keeper" league, where you get to keep some of your players from one year to another.

Generally, I recommend a points league for beginners. It's simpler to grasp and offers a robust array of players that are good. Categories can get needlessly complex; roto is a more advanced way to play; keeper leagues are maybe not the best idea for a new player, either.

This is the "standard" ESPN scoring for a points league, but many variations exist. Some leagues give positive points to penalty minutes, while others subtract points for bad behavior; drafting a high-PIM player like either Tkachuk can be a slam dunk or asking for trouble, depending on which you're in. Some leagues add points for takeaways and subtract for giveaways. Personally, I like to add an extra point for game-winning goals and hat tricks, and up the points from 0.5 to 1.5 for short-handed points. These changes don't make major differences in scoring but are still fun to play with - plus, hatties should get rewarded!

Skaters

Some leagues split forwards into LW, C, and RW, and require you to have a certain number of each on your roster; make sure to take note of this and draft accordingly. Others just split into F, D, and UTIL - the utility slot where you can play either a forward or defenseman. From my experience, centers tend to bring in slightly more points than wingers, but it's not a marked difference. Defenseman score less in the goals/assists/SOG categories, but are helped with block and hit stats. Some defensemen like Jeremy Lauzon, Jacob Trouba, and Chris Tanev are mostly fantasy-relevant due to those blocks and hits. Other defensemen, like Quinn Hughes and Evan Bouchard, rely on their scoring generation to be fantasy-relevant.

A normal ESPN league has a 9-5-1-2-5 set-up, where there are 9 forward slots, 5 defensemen, 1 util, 2 goalies, and 5 bench slots to draft. (Bench slots are for players who aren't playing on a specific day and can be F, D, or G.) Save one bench slot for a third goalie - more on that in a second - and use the other four bench slots on skaters so you can cycle them in based on who's playing.

Goalies

Goalies are... special, both in hockey and in fantasy. This is because, unlike skaters, goalies can end up in the negatives for points. In a standard ESPN league, a goalie gains 0.2 points per save, but loses 2 points per goal against. This means, to break even, a goalie needs to save 10/11 shots against, around a .909 SV%. Obviously, not all goalies will do this every game. Some get buried to the tune of 10 goals against in some games. No matter how good MacKenzie Blackwood or Petr Mrazek are, they will get buried sometimes because their defenses are not great. However, all one has to do is remember the crazy 10-7 Canucks-Wild game last season to know this isn't uniquely a Bad Teams phenomenon. Thus, the goalie position is extra risky in fantasy.

Sheltering a goalie is a more advanced strategy that is incredibly important if you're trying to lock down a matchup. Simply put, "sheltering" the goalie means benching him for the night, even though he's playing a game. Got a matchup that's Lukas Dostal versus the Florida Panthers? Might want to shelter Dosty. How about Dan Vladar against the New Jersey Devils? I'm sheltering Vladar. While you will not gain any points if the goalie does pull out the win, you are protected from the goalie bleeding points. If you think it's significantly more likely that the goalie loses than he wins, consider sheltering him.

I recommend drafting 3 goalies for this reason. Having only 2 makes it difficult to shelter a goalie. Additionally, switching in goalies as needed makes it easier to gain more goalie game points. You can usually have up to 4 goalies, and having more definitely can help, but I think 3 is a sweet spot.

On backups - drafting a near-guaranteed backup (think Jonathan Quick, Semyon Varlamov, Joonas Korpisalo) generally won't have its benefits. Those guys are better off as streaming options on nights when they get easy matchups (more on streaming later). However, picking up a 1B who can take over the net if things go south injury- or luck-wise (think Arturs Silovs, Philipp Grubauer, Joel Hofer) may be quite helpful. Again, this is play-by-ear territory.

The Draft

Before you draft for real, do a mock draft. Or several. I'm an advocate of mocking multiple drafts before the real thing. It's similar to a practice test - the more times you do it, the better you get at it. At least one is almost necessary if only to understand the drafting interface, which can be complex all on its own. Doing more mocks allows you to pick different players at different picks, giving you more of an idea of players you want, players you don't, and players you're willing to draft over or under their ADP (average draft position).

The day of the draft can make or break a team. Do not autodraft if at all possible. If you cannot make it to your draft date/time, set an extensive auto queue to try to secure as many players you like as possible. Trust me. I didn't do this in one league and I ended up with Ivan Provorov and Tony DeAngelo. Ew.

If you draft first overall, you should probably pick Connor McDavid. Don't go for a "spice" pick like Sidney Crosby, who is incredibly unlikely to hit McDavid's point totals. While McDavid was almost always the consensus 1OA in previous years, this is no longer the case - you can make solid arguments for Nathan MacKinnon or Auston Matthews as the 1OA pick in your league. Checking the ADP of players in the Research stats view is helpful here to see where people are valuing certain players outside of projected stats. This will also help you figure out your strategy of who you'll draft where - if Mikko Rantanen and Jack Hughes are both available at pick 10 of a draft, you should take Rantanen, as his 7.9 ADP means he's likely not going to make it back to you, whereas Hughes's 26.2 ADP means he's much more likely to come back.

A side note, though - know thy enemy. Is your league full of Devils fans? Load up on Western Conference players and Rangers, who will likely be undervalued by them. Got a league full of Avs fans? Break out the Red Wings livery and snap up players like Moritz Seider and Dylan Larkin. I took advantage of this in a Pens fans league, grabbing Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Matthew Tkachuk, and Jack Hughes in my first few picks when the rest of the league was drafting all their favorite Penguins and ex-Pens. Also, Sam Reinhart with a 20th round pick didn't hurt, either. Use your fellow drafters' blind spots to your advantage.

The first few rounds should be your star players - the types of players you rely on night-in and night-out to pick up solid points. Depending on the size of your league, the stars may dry up sooner or later. A six-team league may have rosters with most, if not all, stars; a sixteen-team league will likely be leaning on bottom-sixers.

Generally, players on better teams do better. However, better players also do better. Don't draft a bottom-sixer from the Oilers just because of the team they're on; Tyler Toffoli of the Sharks will outscore Brett Kulak seven days a week and twice on Sunday. However, if you're debating whether to pick up a middle-sixer from the Kings or from the Predators, I'd lean towards the latter.

"Should I draft my blorbos?" I can't stop you. What I'd recommend is trying to draft said blorbos in later rounds, if possible. Ultimately, fantasy is personal - maybe you only want to win if it involves dragging your favorite scrappy fourth-liner along for the ride. However, I don't think you'd have gotten this far into this primer if you plan on drafting solely based off sentimentality...

Now, about goalies. Goalie strategies are weird - you can either try to lock top goalies in/around rounds 3-7, or you can try to pick up goalies later in the draft - even at the end. Goalies are voodoo. Whichever floats your boat. While there are a handful of genuinely "elite" goalies (Connor Hellebuyck, Sergei Bobrovsky, Igor Shesterkin) that are worthwhile in early rounds due to their consistency, all three of them struggled at points last year. Other "elite" goalies (Juuse Saros, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ilya Sorokin) struggled even more. Meanwhile, goalies that were not considered "elite" at all (Cam Talbot, Charlie Lindgren, Connor Ingram) had incredibly solid seasons. Play goalies by ear - if you see an early run on G, you may want to pick up a good one before they're all gone, or try to goalie by committee with several less "elite" picks. If people wait, you may want to get the best goalie first, or wait it out with them to pick up more skaters first. There are also teams that do a "zero G" strategy, where they pick up, you guessed it, exactly zero goalies. This lowers the goalie risk, but also lowers the goalie reward. Personally, I think they're mildly cowardly (accept goalies into your heart!) but it's a strategy you can definitely consider, especially if you're risk-averse.

Also, don't forget newcomers! Players who are entering the league this season, such as top draft picks Macklin Celebrini and Matvei Michkov, are often overlooked, yet can be massive boosts to a team. Drafting one or more of these newer players can be a wild card in your fantasy team, giving high potential points if things work out right.

Watch for breakout players as well, who may have a great season with a bit of luck - players like Alexander Holtz and Matt Poitras can do serious damage if the stars align. Did I write this just to mention Holtz? Possibly. You can't prove it though.

In many of these cases, you need to keep an eye on preseason lines and watch who's playing with who on which lines and which powerplays. If a player isn't on the powerplay and is in the bottom half of the lineup, he's likely not going to get great opportunities. If he's skating next to a franchise centerman, on the other hand, the points are likely to roll in.

This is also where your tolerance of Listening To Other People Talk About Hockey comes into play - over the next few weeks, many of these Other People will be putting up articles and a lot of podcasts and videos about fantasy sleepers. Reading or listening to a few is a good way to get an idea of some late-round picks you might want to consider. They are kind of grating, though.

One last thing to consider is "stacks". Stacks are essentially drafting several players who play on the same line/powerplay and letting the points roll in. For instance, if you draft Nathan MacKinnon with your second overall pick, you should strongly consider picking up Mikko Rantanen or Cale Makar with the next pick you have, then adding to them with Jonathan Drouin in a later round. The thinking is, when MacKinnon scores, those other players are likely to pick up assists off it. However, you need to be careful with stacking, as you can't simply draft the entire Dallas Stars roster and press play; there's got to be a balance between careful stacks and spreading out your talent between teams so you're not stuck with very few players playing on any given day.

Injured Reserve

Similarly to the real NHL, fantasy usually has one Injured Reserve slot, sometimes two or more. You can only stash a player here when he's nursing an injury. This allows you to add an extra player in that guy's place, which is useful because some points is better than none points.

Do not use an IR slot on a player with a season-ending injury. Drop him and move on. If the player is out long-term as in months, but not the season, it's a play-by-ear situation. You will likely be able to drop said player and pick them up when they're healthy again. IR is best used for shorter-term injuries (think 1-3 weeks) or on players who you cannot or are unwilling to drop (think Mitch Marner last season).

Playing the Waiver Wire

The main mistake many make is that they draft, then "set and forget", walking away in October and coming back in March or April. This won't win you championships. I generally try to check my rosters daily and move players on and off the bench and IR as necessary - remember, benched players don't score, and not everyone is playing every night. You can set lineups for weeks in advance if you like, which is convenient if you don't want to check every day. Personally, I think of it as a little break-time ritual to go through my leagues and set myself up for success. Unless you're in a crazy amount of leagues, it shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes or so to bench and unbench players and then figure out your IR and streaming situations.

That reminds me, streaming. What's streaming? "Streaming" is a tactic used to pick up extra points from a single roster spot. Remember how I mentioned the IR earlier? Well, when you put a player on IR, you open up a free spot in your lineup for a free agent. But free agents don't play every day. You can cycle free agents daily - if the Sabres are playing today and tomorrow, I'll grab Jason Zucker for the back-to-back, then drop him when he's not playing for Garnet Hathaway of the Flyers, for example. Watch the schedule for back-to-backs, but also watch for opponents. I'd rather have Jonathan Huberdeau against a Sharks-Ducks back-to-back versus Tomas Hertl against a Stars-Leafs one. Make sure, however, that you keep an eye on matchup acquisitions as well. Most leagues only let you pick up a certain number of players a week, and nothing ruins your day more than missing out on a great streaming option because you used all those acquisitions by Thursday.

Also note that you can no longer add/drop players for the day, including IR movements, after the FIRST game of the day starts. Sometimes, with the Global Series or weekend games, this will be early in the day, so make sure to get your streaming done as early as you can (or even the night before) so you don't miss out.

Keep an eye on the standings and how teams are doing. If the Predators are in the middle of an 18-game point streak because Barry Trotz cancelled U2 at the Sphere again, you might want to pick some of them up. If the Sharks are in the middle of a miserable stretch of hockey, you might want to pick up their opposing goaltenders (remember when I mentioned streaming earlier when talking about backups, this is what I mean).

Keep an eye on lines and how they're utilized. Your Connor Brown late-draft flyer is great, as long as he's playing with McDavid and scoring consistently. He's on the fourth line and not scoring? Might want to move off him. Similarly, if there's a player who's getting increased time and a better role, keep an eye on him too, and be ready to pounce.

Keep track of who's getting powerplay time as well - if Timo Meier isn't on PP1, he's not scoring at such a high clip. Unless you're the Penguins, powerplays mean points, and whoever's on the first powerplay has a good chance of bringing those points in.

Keep track of who's getting goalie starts too. Did Charlie Lindgren lose the net to Logan Thompson? I'm dropping the former and picking up the latter. There are usually a few of these cases a year; jumping on them early will benefit you greatly.

Be flexible. Is there a player massively breaking out this season who's still a free agent? Pick him up and drop one of your struggling players to do so. There's no use in sentimentality if you're going for a win. Be a Vegas Golden Knights GM and kick players to the curb when they're underperforming. Don't worry, they still have a place in your heart! Just not in your lineup.

Trades

Want a player from a friend? You're going to have to trade for it. Trades work similarly to in the real NHL, just without picks (as long as you're not in a keeper league). You'll need to reach out to the friend in question and engineer a trade you both agree to. No swapping Leon Draisaitl for Pat Maroon - if you see a trade that's clearly cheating like that, you should be able to bring it up to your league manager and fellow teammates to veto it.

But to trades more generally - I personally don't trade very much, preferring instead to stream for extra points. However, if there are certain players I want, or certain players I want to move off of and get a return, that's when I trade. Again, both parties must agree, so you need to convince your friend that you're giving them a sweet deal, which is part of the fun! Can you sell Jeff Skinner for Tom Wilson? You sure can try! This is another reason why "setting and forgetting" doesn't work too well - you can miss out on valuable trades that can boost your team in the short or long-term.

Playoffs

The playoffs in fantasy don't actually occur during the Stanley Cup playoffs. They're in the last few weeks of the regular season. This is for hopefully obvious reasons (half the teams being gone in the playoffs). Check your league for how many teams get to make the playoffs and how many don't - if you intend to have a playoff team, you need to know how many people you need to beat. Additionally, check to see how the scoring works during the playoffs. Some leagues do two-week matchups during the playoffs; others only do one. Knowing that is important to planning how you want to line up your players.

If you don't make the playoffs, no worries! You should be able to take part in the consolation ladder. Ditto if you're knocked out early, so don't give up hope if your first-round matchup isn't going as planned.

During the last few days of the playoffs, players will be playing their final games. Obvious, right? But this opens up another streaming avenue (at least, if you're not in a keeper league). Let me explain: the Avs this season have their final game on April 13. All other teams end between the 15th and 17th. There's no point in keeping Artturi Lehkonen or Alexandar Georgiev past April 13, as they won't be playing in games anyway. Drop them on the 14th and bring in fresh blood for the final push. Some points is better than none points!

Well, class is dismissed! If you have any other questions, see me during office hours with an ask or drop me a DM, either on Tumblr or Discord (same username).