The Little Things: Draft Kit - The Little Things

Any real NHL fan knows that goals, assists, plus-minus and PIM can't tell the full story of a player. Hockey is such an intricate, relatively low-scoring sport, and the smallest detail of body position or stick placement can account for the difference between a stick salute and a silent trudge to the locker room.

As fantasy tends to imitate reality, fantasy hockey players who see the real-life value beyond points on the board have increasingly been adding other stats to their fantasy formats. Chief among those are two defensive stats: hits and blocked shots.

That's right. Hits are a defensive stat. You can make a body check on offense or defense, but a hit is a very specific kind of check � one that separates an opposing player from the puck. It's the physical counterpart to the takeaway, substituting personal violence for handy stick work. Hit masters need not just physical strength, but the willingness to throw their bodies around, the timing to do so accura

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