Carchidi: What Fantasy Hockey Tells Us About Flyers, Metropolitan Division

I am addicted to playing fantasy football. Been playing so long that our commissioner used to mail us the league’s results after scouring the newspaper’s boxscores on Monday and Tuesday. This, of course, was long before the Internet made the results instantaneous.

I’m also a big fan of Scoresheet Baseball. Been playing since the 1980s, and this is a game that has a real-life feel to it because it’s based on what your players do each week, factoring in your team’s defense and the strength of the pitchers your batters face.

As for fantasy hockey, well, count me out.

It’s a game composed of decimals and a slew of math that takes the fun out of the game. I played it for one year and, quite frankly, there was too much boring math involved — 0.1 points for a “hit” in some leagues, 0.2 points for winning a faceoff, 0.3 points for a blocked shot. Etcetera, etcetera. It seemed like a game for accountants, not hockey fans.

Good diversion

Hey, if you enjoy fantasy hockey, more power to you. Good for you. Anything that takes you away from the Talking Heads at CNN and Fox News for a while is a bonus.

Anyway, I saw NHL.com’s rankings last week of the top 200 fantasy players for the upcoming season and it got me thinking: Is there any merit to the number of ranked players a team has and its chances to get into the playoffs and win a Stanley Cup?

It’s pretty subjective, and the teams with the high-ranking goalies, of course, should get higher marks than a team with, say, a high-ranking left winger.

In any event, below is a look at your Philadelphia Flyers and how they rank with other teams in the Metropolitan Division. The teams are listed in their order of finish from last season, but, remember, the New Jersey Devils were injury-riddled last year and are expected to make great improvement in 2024-25.

Rangers rule

New York Rangers (114 points last season): Seven players in the top 200 this year — No. 7 LW Artemi Panarin, No. 21 G Igor Shesterkin, No. 25 LW Chris Krieder, No. 32 LW Vincent Trocheck, No. 42 D Adam Fox, No. 65 C Mika Zibanejad, and No. 116 LW/RW Alexis Lafreniere,

Carolina Hurricanes (111 points): Seven players in the top 200 this year — No. 40 C Sebastian Aho, No. 78 G Frederik Andersen, No. 92 LW/RW Andrei Svechnikov, No. 99 C/RW Seth Jarvis, No. 138 G Pyotr Kochetkov, No. 149 D Brent Burns, and No. 161 C/RW Martin Necas

New York Islanders (94 points): Seven players in the top 200 this year — No. 57 D Noah Dobson, No. 58 C/RW Mathew Barzal, No. 68 G Ila Sorokin, No. 74 C Bo Horvat, No. 88 C Brock Nelson, No. 183 G Semyon Varlamov, and No. 187 LW Anthony Duclair

Washington Capitals (91 points): Six players in the top 200 this year — No. 27 LW Alex Ovechkin, No. 133 C Dylan Strome, No. 162 D John Carlson, No. 166 RW Tom Wilson, No. 191 D Jakob Chychrun, and No. 195 G Logan Thompson.

Pittsburgh Penguins (88 points): Five players in the top 200 this year — No. 10 C Sidney Crosby, No. 102 C Evgeni Malkin, No. 168 D Kris Letang, No. 169 D Erik Karlsson, and No. 170 RW Bryan Rust

Philadelphia Flyers (87 points): Four players in the top 200 this year — No 59 RW Travis Konecny, No. 70 RW/LW Owen Tippett, No. 117 RW Matvei Michkov, and No. 189 D Travis Sanheim

New Jersey Devils (81 points) — Seven players in the top 200 this year — No. 17 LW/C Jack Hughes, No. 60 LW/RW Jesper Bratt, No. 67 D Dougie Hamilton, No. 86 G Jacob Markstrom, No. 100 C Nico Hershiser, No. 105 LW/RW Timo Meier, and No. 137 D Luke Hughes,

Columbus Blue Jackets (66 points) — Two players in the top 200 this year — No. 148 D Zach Werenski and No. 181 C Adam Fantilli.

In conclusion …

So what conclusions, if any, can we draw from ranking teams by the number of marquee players on its rosters?

For starters, the New York Rangers have a good chance to win the Stanley Cup. The Rangers have seven players in the top 200 and, remarkably, have six players in the top 65 — the best mark in the NHL. Stanley Cup champion Florida and Cup finalist Edmonton have five players each in the top 65.

Based on the number of elite players in the top 100 (not 200), it wouldn’t be surprising if the Rangers and Devils battled for the Metro title, with Carolina and the Islanders in the mix.

The Flyers?

They will fight Washington and Pittsburgh, two aging teams, for the fifth spot, and rookie Matvei Michkov is the “X” factor who could push the Flyers past those two rivals.

Yes, grading teams on fantasy ratings is far from an exact science, but it at least gives us a gauge as to which teams have the most players with game-changing ability — and that can help sort out the contenders from the pretenders.

Sam Carchidi writes a weekly column for Philly Hockey Now. He and Jeff Hare are working on a TV series on the Flyers’ glory days, tentatively called “Bullies.” Carchidi can be reached at samcarchidi55@gmail.com.