Saying Hello to the NHL's New "Bye Weeks": A Fantasy Primer
Tuesday, the NHL announced its schedule for the 2016-17 season. Aside from being condensed to accommodate September's World Cup of Hockey, the biggest change is the introduction of NFL-style "bye weeks." Each team has a stretch of at least five days without scheduled games in January or February.
For fantasy purposes, this addition comes with a potential headache for owners: being without the services of a star player (or players) for a set period of time simply due to their team being in the midst of a break. The NFL plays a 17-week season, with each team receiving one specific week-long hiatus.
Fantasy players know well in advance of when a bye week is, and can draft and plan accordingly for any absences.
The way NHL breaks are scheduled is slightly different.
The break times differ from team-to-team, and aren't necessarily for a full Monday-through-Sunday calendar week, lessening their impact in head-to-head fantasy formats which typically follow such a structure. For example, the Nashville Predators play Sunday, February 12 and are then off until Saturday the 18th. The Edmonton Oilers play Thursday, January 26 but then break until Tuesday the 31st.
In this case, fantasy owners of the likes of D Roman Josi and C Connor McDavid aren't adversely affected; both players won't miss a full week of action in a Monday-to-Sunday scoring format. What's more, back-to-back games typically come immediately before or after the time off, meaning players should have a minimum of two games in which to accrue fantasy points in a weekly format. In Nashville's case, the team has back-to-backs both leading into and coming out of the break.
Unless a fantasy owner has several key players at multiple positions from one team, the overall impact of the new schedule shouldn't be felt all that much. While owning multiple fantasy football players with, say, Week 8, off could decimate a roster, every NHL player will be out of action for a five-day stretch sometime in January or February, so all fantasy owners should be equally inconvenienced.
For waiver claims, players whose teams have already had their break (or whose break is significantly off in the distance) will be in demand, as they're set to play three to four times in a given week as opposed to just twice in the event of a break. Some planning as the season heads into 2017 can identify when a player's schedule and potential contribution can be maximized early in the new year.