The Rule Changes In The League and Your Pool

No red line, shootouts, small goalie pads & a tighter crackdown on obstruction. These are the 4 rules you should consider when you're looking at historical statistics for some players. These rules will effect a lot of players and if you know how, you're drafting ability got a lot better.

The most exciting rule change coming into effect this season is the lack of a red line. Breakaways and long bomb passes will be the weapons of choice for a lot of players. If you somehow incorporate Goals Against in your goalie points, then you better find a good one-on-one goalie.

When you look at the big goal scorers in the league, like Ilya Kovalchuk, Jarome Iginla and Rick Nash, it's worth considering how fast they are, how skilled they are and if they have a defenseman who can toss the long bomb. Granted, it doesn't just have to be a defenseman, but generally, they're the ones picking up a rebound and throwing it to a streaking forward and hitting them in stride.

Shootouts won't generally count in your statistics. Shootout goals and saves won't historically referenced as great statistics, but what it does do is eliminate ties. Goaltenders won't be able to register anymore ties, it'll just be a win or a loss for them, so again, you have to find the goalies who are great one-on-one goalies; like Khabibulin, Luongo and Brodeur.

Smaller goalie pads are less likely to make a great difference to some goalies and their wins and there might be little effect... but it may be too early to tell. The goalies these days are becoming really good and with the number of coaches that are teaching these kids how to play, it is no wonder why they are doing so well. Smaller pads may actually make some keepers a little bit faster.

Finally, the crackdown on obstruction, if they do call it at all, should increase the number of power plays to start the season. Saying that, the big scorers on the power play are generally picked fairly early or relatively late (if there is a handicap on power play points). If they do crackdown and open the game up, look for little players like Mike Comrie and Paul Kariya to make more of an impact, because they were the ones that were slowed up the most with all the obstruction.