Getty ImagesDobber checks in on Puck Daddy to force-feed you the latest fantasy hockey trends. The founder of DobberHockey.com and a columnist for The Hockey News website, he long ago immersed himself into this rollercoaster world and is unable to escape.

The rule of thumb, generally speaking, is that the more NHL trades that you expect to happen on a certain day, the more underwhelming the day ends up. And nobody wants to see some impact NHL trades go down more than Bruce Garrioch a keeper-league fantasy owner.

This time however, said day (or "weekend", rather) actually turned out quite exciting on the trade front. Some big names were on the move, including addressing some goaltending needs in ways we didn't expect.

Here are the 11 biggest names impacting your fantasy league.

Sergei Bobrovsky to the Columbus Blue Jackets

GM Scott Howson was wowed by Bobrovsky's 0.899 SP and 3.02 GAA enough to go out and get him at all costs (three draft picks, as it were). After all — only Allen York and Curtis Sanford were able to beat those marks with the Jackets.

I kid.

Getty ImagesYou knew this was coming. Yesterday's look at the West probably tipped you off. So without further ado — well, actually just one ado: a shameless plug. Join my free playoff pool and if you feel completely helpless at drafts year after year, then give my Interactive Playoff Draft List a shot.

Now without further ado, here are my thoughts on the Eastern Conference, with a fantasy slant.

New York Rangers (1)

The obvious: Marian Gaborik, Brad Richards, Ryan Callahan, Derek Stepan and Michael Del Zotto.

Dark horses: Brandon Dubinsky had eight points in his last 11 games. He may not be a potential 65-point player, but he's certainly not the 34-point guy who showed up this season, tying the likes of Shawn Horcoff in scoring. He could very well be that player who posts 15 points in 18 playoff games. ... Brian Boyle ended the season with seven points in nine games and he boasts the big body that teams will often use in the postseason to plant in front of the net on the power play (see Byfuglien, Dustin).

Could let you down: Carl Hagelin is a speedy rookie who shows a lot of promise. He made a big splash this campaign, posting 38 points in 64 games while posting a eye-popping plus-21. But he is a rookie, and Torts loves to lean on his vets. He also has just one point in his last 10 games… Dan Girardi, the team's minute muncher, has just three points in 32 career playoff games.

Keep in mind: Del Zotto still shows his inexperience by suffering through cold spells. He finished the season pointless in his last four, and went a stretch in January pointless in eight. On the flip side, that means he got his production this year during some pretty impressive hot runs. ... Richards' reputation as a playoff warrior is well-founded. He has 57 points in his last 52 playoff games. ... Gaborik has just seven points in his last 16 playoff contests.

Boston Bruins (2)

The obvious: Tyler Seguin, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara.

Dark horses: Rich Peverley was better and better as the postseason wore on last year. He carried that on into this season and were it not for injuries he would have posted career highs. If you like Boston, Peverley is almost as good as the players listed above… Benoit Pouliot has shown a lot of improvement throughout the season. Granted, as the fourth overall pick in 2005 this was expected of him five years ago, but better late than never. He has 30 points in his last 58 games and shown great chemistry with Brian Rolston to give the Bruins a third scoring line down the stretch… Speaking of Rolston, he has 14 points in his last 12 games.

Could let you down: In terms of offense, the numbers weren't there for Lucic last year. He had just 12 points in 25 playoff games after posting 18 points in the prior 23. He was used in a role where offense wasn't his prime directive, and judging by the latest Stanley Cup engraving, Coach Claude Julien will probably use him in the same manner this time around, too. So while the PIM will be high, the points may be low.

Keep in mind: Nathan Horton (mild concussion) is still not skating and may not get into any playoff action at all, even if Boston goes all the way…Krejci led all players in postseason scoring last year with 23 points…In each of his last two postseasons, Chris Kelly's points-per-game average was higher than it was during the preceding regular season.

GettySometime over the next few days, you'll be sitting down for a playoff pool draft. Generally that means printing up a list of final scoring stats a minute or two beforehand, and slinking into the boardroom (or the pub, or your buddy's living room) three minutes late, sheepishly grinning as your competition boorishly complain about how you are holding up the draft.

Do something different this year. At the cost of an extra 10 minutes. Pick up a nice playoff draft list, such as the one I'm selling over at DobberHockey (I'm also running a free playoff pool there, to get you in the mindset). Then do a bit of research on dark horses and recent trends.

Better yet, let me do that for you. Here is my take on the Western Conference playoff outlook:

Vancouver Canucks (1)

The obvious: Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Ryan Kesler,  Alex Burrows, Alex Edler, Kevin Bieksa.

Dark horses: Corey Schneider will get the call faster than he did last year, if Roberto Luongo has similar struggles. ... Assuming Zack Kassian recovers from his upper body injury, he will get an opportunity to use his big frame to really make a splash. ... Max Lapierre would make a decent final round pick on your team if you are building around Vancouver as one of your four teams (I generally draft players from four teams, depending on the size of the pool). He could be a sleeper if the team goes deep. He had six points in his last seven games after just 13 in his first 75.

Could let you down: Ryan Kesler, with two points in his last 12 games, has had a tough time offensively this season. The slow start could be attributed to his missing training camp recovering from hip surgery, but what about the slow finish?

Keep in mind: Whenever the Canucks are in the postseason, Burrows occasionally gets moved off of the Sedin line. Generally, this means he'll slip from being a 60-point player to being a 40-point player, so he does carry some risk… Daniel Sedin is skating on his own. Or not. Another confusing concussion situation. I wouldn't be drafting him in the first several rounds, those picks are too important.

Getty ImagesDobber checks in every week to force-feed you the latest fantasy hockey trends. The founder of DobberHockey.com and a columnist for The Hockey News website, he long ago immersed himself into this rollercoaster world and is unable to escape.

So how did you do this year? If you didn't have at least one of these 20 players, you probably aren't on top. These are the Top 20 scores in rotisserie for 2011-12, in which you rank each category and then tally up each rank number.

This snippet, courtesy of Frozen Pool, encompasses the entire campaign.

But besides picking the best of the year, success is also the result of grabbing players who produced far above what most projected. My annual Top 10 Fantasy MVPs list involves balancing expectation with result. It's about drafting a player 120th in September and he puts up numbers that would rank him closer to 30th had the draft been redone in April. It's about not suckering for Michael Grabner's three-month hot streak late last season, but instead suckering for Jamie Benn's three-month hot streak late last season.

You won't see Steven Stamkos' name here. Before the season began you had him penciled in for 50 goals and close to 95 points. Zdeno Chara is another fantasy stud this year — but 50 points and 100 PIMs is about what you figured before you took him. You drafted these players in a certain round and received the appropriate return for that pick.

Without further ado, it's time to take a look at the players who saved your ass in 2011-12 by playing well above expectations.

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Dobber checks in every week to force-feed you the latest fantasy hockey trends. The founder of DobberHockey.com and a columnist for The Hockey News website, he long ago immersed himself into this rollercoaster world and is unable to escape.

Two weeks of regular season hockey to go before we break out our draft lists and start putting together a formidable playoff team for the office pool. But before all that, let's take one last kick at the can here as we try to win/place/save face/not lose our 2011-12 fantasy league.

Here is a snippet of Frozen Pool's Roto Rater report for the last two weeks — taking into account player position and the standard deviation of each stat to assign a rating.

DobberStuds...

These fellas are wielding a hot stick. Take that into consideration when you go after them in trade talks...

James Neal, Pittsburgh Penguins (8-5-9-14, plus-9, 8 PIM, 32 SOG) — Neal has the sweetest job in hockey — playing shotgun beside the league's leading scorer. He's also been piling

Getty ImagesDobber checks in every Monday to force-feed you the latest fantasy hockey trends. The founder of DobberHockey.com and a columnist for The Hockey News website, he long ago immersed himself into this rollercoaster world and is unable to escape.

Interesting fact — Mr. "Eight-Point Game" Sam Gagner has 20 points in the 20 games that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins missed with a shoulder injury. He has 22 points in 44 games with RNH.

That's one hell of a difference and lends credence to the theory that he is being "Jordan Staal-ed" in Edmonton. That is to say, his ceiling may only be 55 points on this team, but 70 or more on another.

Speaking of impactful lineup injury returns, there were a couple of minor ones in Pittsburgh this past Thursday. Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang pushed defensemen Paul Martin and Matt Niskanen right out of the power-play, and thus fantasy, mix. It was interesting to see Crosby line up with Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy, thereby keeping Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal with their current linemates.

The move doesn't disrupt the value of the six players on those lines, and it has already boosted the value of both Cooke and Kennedy (each have four points in three games since). I have a suspicion that next week's Roto Ranker result will have both of those guys appearing in the Top 100.

Here is the Roto Ranker for the past two weeks, courtesy of Frozen Pool:

DobberStuds...

These fellas are wielding a hot stick. Take that into consideration when you go after them in trade talks...

Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames (10-8-6-14, plus-3, 9 PIM, 33 SOG) — The last time Iginla failed to post at least 67 points, we were all still laughing at ourselves for fearing Y2K. His recent hot streak puts him back on pace to keep that 67-plus streak alive.

Loui Eriksson, Dallas Stars (19-8-13-21, plus-11, 2 PIM, 43 SOG) — Eriksson is on track for his third consecutive 70-point season, as well as possibly a career high in goals. He already has a career high in plus/minus (plus-20) and he'd have to pretty much pull a Rick Nash to get that number down below the plus-14 he had in 2009.

140137977Dobber checks in every Monday to force-feed you the latest fantasy hockey trends. The founder of DobberHockey.com and a columnist for The Hockey News website, he long ago immersed himself into this roller-coaster world and is unable to escape.

PA Parenteau is having the season of his life, thanks in part to playing with John Tavares — especially on the power play.

But as well as those two have been doing (along with soon to be three-time 30-goal scorer Matt Moulson), there are eight lines out there who have been performing better over the last month. With another tip of the hat to Frozen Pool, here are the hottest lines of the last 30 days:

DobberHockey.com
Studs...

These fellas are wielding a hot stick. Take that into consideration when you go after them in trade talks...

Ilya Kovalchuk, New Jersey Devils (4-5-4-9, plus-4, 0 PIM, 22 SOG) — Along with Martin Brodeur He's pushed the Devils into the playoffs. In his last 48 games he has 60 points, which is enough to cruise to a scoring title…if only hockey started in December.

Jeff Skinner, Carolina Hurricanes (8-3-5-8, plus-6, 18 PIM, 20 SOG) — With Eric Staal mired in another slump, it's nice to see last year's Calder winner whip back into form. And look at the little guy getting all feisty with the misconduct penalty — so cute!

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Dobber checks in every Monday to force-feed you the latest fantasy hockey trends. The founder of DobberHockey.com and a columnist for The Hockey News website, he long ago immersed himself into this rollercoaster world and is unable to escape.

My favorite moves of the few days leading up to last week's trade deadline, as far as short-term fantasy boosts are concerned, were:

1. Marc-Andre Gragnani to Vancouver. This one hasn't worked out so well as of yet. I expected him to slid into the role that Christian Ehrhoff had with this team a year ago. Instead, he has slipped into the role of 'crappy fringe player'. He's only three games into his tenure with the Canucks, so I'll give him time.

2. Andrei Kostitsyn to the Predators. Now I'd like to see them try to pull off the trick of "one Kostitsyn, two uniforms" with them as teammates. The streaky older brother will be big down the stretch. After all, he has a contract to earn.

3. Wojtek Wolski to Florida. The jury is still out on this one, as he has three points in five games, shoots like a gangster, but has been defensively atrocious. As long as he can stay on Tomas Fleischmann's line though, he'll do well.

4. Zack Kassian to Vancouver. Although I think this young power forward will put up modest numbers for the first three or four years, I think he'll be a fantastic dark horse for your playoff pool.

Here is a snippet of the best rotisserie stats over the past week, via Frozen Pool:

Studs...

These fellas are wielding a hot stick. Take that into consideration when you go after them in trade talks...

David Desharnais, Montreal Canadiens (24-8-17-25, plus-6, 4 PIM, 31 SOG) — Montreal's leading scorer has 31 points in the 33 games that Randy Cunneyworth has coached.

Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (9-10-8-18, plus-3, 6 PIM, 34 SOG and 6 PPP) — These days, when Stammer gets the puck on his stick in the offensive zone, the opposing goalie just turns and grabs his water bottle. No point in even trying to stop the shot, it's going in. The 22-year-old has an outside shot at tripling his age in goals. How long has it been since we've seen that? He needs 19 goals in 17 games. Just ask Corey Perry how doable that is.