NHL Fantasy Hockey: John Tavares MVP, Calgary Flames Least Valuable Players for Week 15

With all the Olympic rosters now announced there are no doubt several players that will be playing with a chip on their shoulder after being snubbed. Martin St. Louis, Claude Giroux, Bobby Ryan, and Jiri Hudler are a few that come to mind and if you own any of the aforementioned players, having them fail to crack their respective Olympic squads could be the best thing that ever happened to your fantasy team. Unless of course they spend the rest of the season displaying the reasons they weren’t selected.

Let’s look at this week’s MVPs and LVPs.

The MVP

John Tavares – C – 100% Owned

There was no question about Tavares’ spot on the Canadian Olympic team and he wasted little time justifying their reasoning for the selection. Tavares had four goals and six assists last week to go along with 12 shots on goal. Not only that, but the Islander forward went plus-12 over the last seven days. Perhaps most impressively he has helped New York to seven wins in their last eight games.

The Runners Up

Paul Stastny – C – 64% Owned

With all the young talent Colorado has accumulated in recent years it would be easy to overlook Stastny. However, the Avs’ center did his best last week to make sure he stood out. Stastny racked up seven points and finished as a serviceable plus-3. He even shockingly chipped in with two hits, which although cannot be confirmed that he delivered intentionally, still help out poolies nonetheless.

Brad Richards – C – 82% Owned

The Brad Richards experiment with the Rangers has delivered lukewarm results so far, but lately he is showing signs of a resurgence. Richards grabbed a goal and five helpers last week and added a staggering 21 shots. Most importantly New York has been winning games, six of eight in fact. The Rangers surge up the standings has a lot to do with a radical new strategy they’ve employed called ‘scoring more goals than the other team.’

Sergei Bobrovsky – C – 87% Owned

Bobrovsky returned to the Blue Jackets last week after a lengthy absence because of an injury and promptly had a 40 save performance and a shutout in two starts. And quickly reminded us all how fun it is to say BOBROVSKY!!!

Honorable Mentions: Cory Schneider, Carey Price, Tim Thomas, Corey Perry, Valteri Filppula, Thomas Vanek, Alex Pietrangelo, Martin St. Louis, Jason Demers, Nathan MacKinnon, Rick Nash, Kris Letang, Gabriel Landeskog, Vladimir Tarasenko, Joe Pavelski

The LVP (Least Valuable Player)

The Calgary Flames – Everybody – The entire organization

It’s a ground-breaking day for this column as it’s the first time an entire team has stood out for ineptitude. The Flames have lost seven of eight games, but what’s worse is they have been shutout in five of those contests and managed just a single goal in another two. If they’re not careful they could become the first NHL team in history to get relegated.

Not Last But Certainly Least

Cody Franson – D – 77% Owned

Franson managed an assist on Sunday night against New Jersey to give him at least one point for the week, but that couldn’t cover up a poor performance overall. Looking back to his previous six games would reveal no points and a minus-8 rating over that stretch.

Ryan Kesler – C – 91% Owned

Kesler went pointless last week and only posted a measly six shots. If only he had an in your face coach that could motivate him somehow.

Daniel Briere – C –4% Owned

Briere being 4% owned shows people are paying attention to his stats and not his name. It hasn’t been a great 33-game experience with the Canadiens and Briere has only 13 points in 33 outings thus far. He went pointless last week and never had more than two shots in a game. But on a positive note, Montreal has a lot of great Delis.

Dishonorable Mentions: Devan Dubnyk, Jake Gardiner, Matt Duchene, Jonathan Huberdeau, Mike Smith, Cam Fowler, Milan Lucic, David Krejci

Michael Amato is an Associate Editor for DobberHockey and a News Editor for theScore. You can follow him on Twitter at @amato_mike