TIG NWHL Fantasy: We have a champion

It’s time to hand out bragging rights

At long last, we’re finally here. After fighting many gremlins, adapting to some game-shattering wrenches tossed into the proverbial gears, and enduring various headaches and complications, the first season of The Ice Garden’s NWHL Fantasy Hockey is over. And we have a champion.

The winning team

Congratulations to Mary Shelley! You’ve won an NWHL shirsey of your choice. Here is the champion’s winning roster.

  • Forwards: Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Tereza Vanišová, Emma Vlasic, Audra Richards, Brooke Boquist, Theresa Knutson
  • Defenders: Mallory Souliotis, Dominique Kremer, Kristen Barbara, Saroya Tinker
  • Goalies: Amanda Leveille, Lovisa Selander/

Also, a special congratulations to Carly Jackson of the Buffalo Beauts for finishing fifth overall and winning the Players’ Pool. As the Players’ Pool Champ, Carly chose Black Girl Hockey Club to receive a $50 donation in her name! Please join Carly in supporting BGHC!

Final standings

And here is how each and every one of the 63 registered teams finished! How did your team do?

Top five fantasy goalies

  1. Amanda Leveille (MIN) | 20.05
  2. Lovisa Selander (BOS) | 19.9
  3. Elaine Chuli (TOR) | 18.55
  4. Carly Jackson (BUF) | 16.5
  5. Sonjia Shelly (MET) | 14.4

Top five fantasy defenders

  1. Kaleigh Fratkin (BOS) | 9.26
  2. Taylor Woods (TOR) | 6.58
  3. Lindsay Eastwood (TOR) | 5.92
  4. Mallory Souliotis (BOS) | 5.08
  5. Leila Kilduff (MET) | 4.36

Top five fantasy forwards

  1. Mikyla Grant-Mentis (TOR) | 10.92
  2. Christina Putigna (BOS) | 8.66
  3. McKenna Brand (BOS) | 8.38
  4. Jillian Dempsey (BOS) | 7.18
  5. Breanne Wilson-Bennett (TOR) | 5.86

Thoughts

First and foremost, I’d like to say a special thank you to Alyssa Longmuir for all of her help. This project would have been a nightmare without her helping me automate almost all of the stats and then helping me troubleshoot some problems we ran into. Spreadsheets are filled with gremlins. Always bring a friend with you to help smash them. You can follow Alyssa on Twitter here, look at some of her work on her site, and support her on Patreon!

I also want to thank everyone who made a team, helped spread the word, and made this project so much fun to put together and work on. This certainly isn’t the last time we’ll be doing something like this for The Ice Garden, so keep an eye out for future projects.

When I first began flirting with the idea of doing fantasy hockey for the NWHL’s Lake Placid bubble I knew this was going to be a lot of work. Needless to say, two of the teams dropping out and the tournament’s unique structure — which changed twice — made this process significantly more complicated than I had anticipated. Managers who had a lot of Riveters on their teams were definitely dealt a bad hand here, and that is really unfortunate.

With all of that being said, this was still a blast. I hope it made you pay close attention to some players you might have otherwise overlooked. I hope it piqued your curiosity in hockey stats — especially primary assists. And, above all else, I hope you had fun building your team and wondering how it was doing after every game in Lake Placid.