There are a more than a few measuring sticks for fantasy hockey team owners to evaluate their players, but this is a real solid indicator – minutes per point. 

This statistic gives you some quick insight with regards to whether or not a player is taking advantage of the ice time he is given. It is fair to say that a player who is counted upon for offense and given lots of ice time to do so, had better have a low minutes per point ratio or said ice time can be expected to decrease. 

By the same token, a player who is being underused, but is picking up the points when he plays, will likely see an increase in their ice time. This is a very general indicator, as some players bring more than just offense to the table, some players are used a lot on the penalty kill, etc. 

The current leader, Joe Thornton, plays just 14.1 minutes before notching another point. Jason Spezza is second (14.2) and Jaromir Jagr is third (14.3). Here are the top 20 for this statistic:

None of this information is going to help you too much in your keeper league, I stuck the chart in there for the sake of interest. What WILL help your rollover pool is a list of the younger players – the ones that do not get more than 10 or 12 minutes of ice time per game. How are they doing in limited duty? That player that has only 15 points for you this year may not be so bad after all, when you see it only takes him 25 minutes for each point! I filtered the chart down to just the players that have played less than 1000 minutes this season. This works out to about 14 minutes per game or less. This would also include players that had missed significant time due to injury.

Naturally, this does not illustrate other factors such as linemates, powerplay time, etc, but if I'm a Jeff Carter owner, for example, then I am a lot happier with his progress looking at this chart.

Players such as Pierre Turgeon, Peter Bondra, Robert Lang, John LeClair and Joe Nieuwendyk, have had their share of injuries this season, and are winding down their career. They likely will not see more minutes next season. Daniel Briere, Ladislav Nagy, Petr Prucha, Jussi Jokinen and Rick Nash... these guys will see even more minutes next season, and if they can avoid the injury bug you will find their production will spike.

Mar. 20, 2006 - Deadline 2006 – Fantasy Fallout, Part 2
Mar. 13, 2006 - Deadline 2006 – Fantasy Fallout, Part 1
Mar. 06, 2006 - Trade Deadline Looms II
Feb. 27, 2006 - Break Over, Deadline Looms
Feb. 06, 2006 - Risky Picks
Jan. 30, 2006 - The Future of Boston
Jan. 23, 2006 - High-Flying Canucks
Jan. 16, 2006 - Home Sweet Home
Jan. 09, 2006 - He's Baaack!
Jan. 02, 2006 - Young Pens Get Their Shot
Dec. 19, 2005 - The 'New' Sabres
Dec. 12, 2005 - Shark Outlook Upgraded to 'Buy'
Dec. 05, 2005 - Rejoice Over Recent Movement
Nov. 28, 2005 - The Most Underrated Fantasy Player
Nov. 21, 2005 - Chemistry in Chicago
Nov. 14, 2005 - Thrashers the Net
Nov. 07, 2005 - King of the L.A. blueline
Oct. 31, 2005 - October's Best and Worst Fantasy Players
Oct. 24, 2005 - Wild About Scoring
Oct. 17, 2005 - Striking Gold – Thanks to Linemates
Oct. 10, 2005 - A Surprise Fantasy Asset
Oct. 03, 2005 - Last of the Late Picks to Put You Over the Top
Sept. 26, 2005 - More Late Picks to Put You Over the Top
Sept. 19, 2005 - Late Picks to Make or Break Your Pool Team

Dobber's Fantasy Tips exclusively appear Monday's at TheFourthPeriod.com.
Comments/Concerns/Criticisms/Compliments: rotohockey@rogers.com