PHF Fantasy Hockey: Season Recap and Final Standings

We have a champion!

The 2021-22 PHF season is over and — after much scrambling, swearing, and sleepless nights — we have a 2022 TIG PHF Fantasy champion!

Before we dive in, I wanted to thank everyone for participating and for their patience this year. It’s no secret that this year’s fantasy content did not go as planned as a result of data integrity issues with the league. Of course, I also want to thank the industrious, inspiring, and outstanding An Nguyen who helped me streamline this project by creating an entire website. This project wouldn’t have happened without her. An is really something else.


The Ice Garden Fantasy Hockey: 2021-22 PHF


Without further adieu, congratulations to Dave MacPherson’s Team Pick224! Dave’s team finished the year with 228.87 points, eclipsing Team Ives on the Prize who finished in second with 220.59 points. For those who don’t know, Dave has a hockey stats site that features women’s hockey data called pick224.com. You should definitely check it out.

Standings

It should be noted that penalties drawn were not included in the final stats and standings because we are unable to confirm that data for all PHF games at this time. Rather than include some of the data, we thought it best to exclude all of it. We did, however, track and include hat tricks for skaters and assists for goalies (looking at you, Amanda Leveille).

So, how did your team finish?

#TIGPHFFantasy Final Standings

TeamFinal Pts
Team Pick224228.87
Ives on the Prize220.59
PHH Podcast210.78
Philadelphia Litterers208.9
Moscow Snowplows207.65
My Pride is Showing207.49
DJ's Ugly Duckling202.25
RIP Calgary Inferno197.98
The Walleye is Dead, Long Live the Loon!192.87
Pterodactyl Hockey Federation192.25
Flynnies188.1
Pride & Prejudice186.76
here kitty kitty phfphfphf186.43
Klienbach to the Fluketure186.21
The Ives of Marchment185.29
Down With the Vlasicness183.56
Hockey (Taylor's Version)177.23
America Runs on Diffendal176.82
Magic Mullets176.67
Fast and Furious173.01
Antalya Foxes172.9
Buffalo Wings172.07
Catamount Country171.93
Dog River River Dogs170.22
Audra Score-ison More-ison168.33
Face On163.75
The A is for A Lesbian159.62
Beauts or Bust158.69
Jennatime, Jennawhere158.37
Tuffest Mustard158.28
The Frat Pack157.8
The team to be Named Later157.75
Goon Squad157.42
Royal Icing154.6
Twigs154.55
The Spice Must Bo153.66
The Puck Noobs151.98
Keephfing Karlsson151.5
Team Zam Cam151.01
The better PHH Podcast team150.2
Out of the Woods143.92
Tank Cleaners143.27
Sammy Davis' Rink Rat Pack140.68
Transition Game138.91
Puckin' Trouble138.43
The Unicorn Rainbows138.19
All Random, Anytime, Anywhere (Except Boston)134.37
Explaining to Everyone...129.04
@sosayslucia129.04
Gordie's Goons (feat. Tito)128.17
Unnamed Future PHF Team in Calgary127.44
Former Whale (and those that left and came back)126.39
The Homosexual Agenda126.26
Breakout Bosses122.15
Pittsburgh Mary Readers119.27
Am I allowed to play?118.4
Gut feelings because it's 40min before puck drop96.18
SkaterKennys90.83

MVPs

As expected, the most valuable players were elite starting goalies.

Three of the top five players were goalies and two of them — Katie Burt and Amanda Leveille — started 11 games as a result of sharing the crease or injury. Even with the adjustments made to balance elite skaters and elite goalies before the season, elite goalies proved to be the true MVPs. If you had Leveille, Burt, or Chuli between the pipes, there’s a good chance your team had a great year. It also didn’t hurt to have Kennedy Marchment or Mikyla Grant-Mentis.

The Top 20 Most Valuable Fantasy Players

PlayerPOSTotal PtsGPPts/GPTm
Katie BurtG44.93123.74BOS
Elaine ChuliG42.52172.5TOR
Kennedy MarchmentF38.3201.91CTW
Mikyla Grant-MentisF37.06191.95TOR
Amanda LeveilleG31.88112.9MIN
Allie ThunstromF31.84201.59MIN
Taylor GirardF29.6201.48CTW
Jonna CurtisF28.82201.44MIN
Madison PackerF28.22201.41MET
Shiann DarkangeloF26.52201.33TOR
Amanda ConwayF24.22181.35CTW
Rebecca RussoF22.8201.14MET
Brooke WolejkoG22.59141.61MET
McKenna BrandF21.1201.06BOS
Kendall CornineF20.66201.03MET
Carly JacksonG20.65181.15BUF
Emma WoodsF20.44201.02TOR
Taylor WenczkowskiF19.92201BOS
Audra MorrisonF19.26200.96MIN
Alyssa WohlfeilerF18.8181.04CTW

The grand slam pick for a few teams was Connecticut’s Taylor Girard, who cost just 80 TIG Bucks to have on your roster but finished the season as the fourth-most valuable skater (29.6 points). Amanda Conway also had a price tag of 80 TIG Bucks and finished the year as the eighth-most valuable skater (24.22 points). So, generally speaking, it was good to have a few members of the Connecticut Whale on your roster.

The top fantasy players for each PHF team are as follows: Katie Burt for the Boston Pride (44.93), Elaine Chuli for the Toronto Six (42.52), Kennedy Marchment for the Connecticut Whale (38.30), Amanda Leveille (31.88), Madison Packer for the Metropolitan Riveters (28.22), and Carly Jackson for the Buffalo Beauts (20.65). This fantasy operation is pro-goalie.

If you want to know how your favorite player(s) ranked, you can look at all of the data on the site that An made for 2022 TIG PHF Fantasy Hockey. My counting stats project for the 2021-22 PHF season will also soon be made public and will eventually live on Their Hockey Counts. Remember, fantasy hockey points are not a metric for how good or bad a hockey player is even if it is based on Game Score.

Reflections

So, another year in the books and another year of thinking about what I can do to improve this experience and grow this tiny community.

Truth be told, this year was a real challenge. The data integrity issues that plagued PHF box scores derailed this project (and others) from the word go. I had planned to do updates throughout the season for The Ice Garden and that was simply not possible. I didn’t see the point in producing content based on data that I knew was erroneous, incomplete, or otherwise flawed. It was frustrating. Before An swooped in and saved the day, I was really struggling and feeling defeated.

As I’m reflecting on this year’s project, I can’t help but think of Carlie Markey’s presentation at OTTHAC where she touched on how vital data integrity is for women’s hockey leagues, especially those that are professional. Fantasy hockey is fun. It can serve as both a gateway to the sport for new fans and a way for already invested fans to enrich their experience. But we can’t have fantasy hockey if we don’t have data that is reasonably accurate. And, to be frank, that is the least of our problems if we can’t trust the stats. But that is a conversation for another day.

All things considered, I learned a lot doing this project. I always do. If you participated, I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed building your team and celebrating a little louder when someone on your fantasy roster scored a goal, made a big save, or picked up a primary assist. Congrats again to Dave and thanks to Spencer Fascetta and Anne Tokarski for helping with player valuation, An Nguyen for literally everything, and to Michelle Jay for saying yes to this project (again).

Let’s do it again.