Dobber checks in every Thursday to force-feed you the latest fantasy hockey trends. The founder of DobberHockey.com and a columnist for The Hockey News website, he long ago immersed himself into this rollercoaster world and is unable to escape.

In a year that began with no NHL hockey at all, and then nearly had it in July, there's no shortage of big stories that impacted the world of fantasy hockey. The fact that the lockout ended was the biggest story in all of hockey, let alone fantasy, goes without saying. Without the handshake between Donald Fehr (remember him?) and Gary Bettman, we'd have had to resort to spending more time with the family in lieu of tweaking our fantasy team. Crazy, I know.

But there were some big stories on the ice too. Stories that changed the face of fantasy hockey. Events that unfolded that sent ripples throughout keeper, head-to-head and rotisserie leagues around the world. Here are my picks for the biggest ones

20. Vincent Lecavalier - same ol' same ol'

Lecavalier, a former 108-point player, has fallen well short of a point-per-game pace over the last several seasons. And he's also been hit with an abundance of injuries that limited him to 65 games, give or take, during that span. But when he was bought out this past summer and immediately signed with Philadelphia, the fantasy world was abuzz with speculation.

Would he play on the wing with Claude Giroux?

Now that he's out from behind Steven Stamkos he'll flourish!

It turns out that, as is the case with most players, Lecavalier is indeed the same guy in one city as he was in the other. He'll still be well short of a point per game and he'll still be held to just 65 games or so.

19. Claude Giroux's bounce-back

It took Giroux six games to get his first point of the season and 16 games to pop in his first goal. So his 93-point campaign was a fluke? Add in the team making Craig Berube head coach - and all the scary stories about clamping down defensively - and owners were trading Giroux to the first bidder, forget about the highest bidder. Poolies aren't known for their patience. But Giroux has 30 points in 25 games since.

18. Alexander Semin's contract

Fantasy owners are well aware of what Semin "can" do. We're also pretty clear on what he actually does. Last year he signed a one-year contract with Carolina and proceeded to post 30 points in 30 games to go with a plus-18 rating. The Hurricanes signed him to a five-year deal on March 25 and after that Semin has managed 29 points in 42 games and a minus-8.

17. The Tyler Seguin/Loui…Smith trade

The Boston Bruins are a deep team and fantasy owners knew - they just knew - that if Tyler Seguin could become 'the man' on another team then he would flourish immediately. Meanwhile, Loui Eriksson owners felt that a change of scenery was just what the doctor ordered for the three-time 70-point player coming off such a poor season. As for Reilly Smith owners - well, they didn't exist.

Three months into the season and so far so good for Seguin and Smith. The latter is firmly in the Top 50 scorers with 31 points, while Seguin sits in the Top 15 with 39. Eriksson has struggled at times with his new team, as well as injuries.

16. Playoff deception

After watching the postseason in May and June, we came away from it convinced of two indisputable facts.

1. Bryan Bickell is a budding star

2. Marc-Andre Fleury can't stop a beach ball.

So a "smart" fantasy owner drafted Bickell in the 11th or 12th round, while Fleury was avoided, or else grabbed in the sixth or seventh round if he was still there.

It turns out that Fleury should have been drafted in the first or second round, given his league-leading 22 wins. Bickell, well, let's not go there.

15. Hartnell down!

Scott Hartnell finished the 2011-12 season as the second-best fantasy player in a basic six-category rotisserie league. His 37 goals, 67 points, 136 PIM, 16 PPG and 232 shots - as a left wing I might add - were the stuff of legends. Chosen in the first two rounds of most leagues last January, Hartnell has been a shadow of his former self ever since. He barely justified a 12th-round selection. He has six points and is plus-7 in his last five games, so perhaps things are turning back around.

14. Goalie injuries

If you're an owner of Jonathan Quick or Pekka Rinne, two of the "Big 3" when it comes to fantasy goaltenders in the summer, and you're slow on the waiver wire, your season was over before it even began. Combined, the two normally reliable studs have played 29 games and have 14 wins. Rinne is still recovering from a hip ailment and looks as though he won't be back until February. Quick has been out for a couple of months with a hip injury, but is set to return to NHL duty in a week or two. He'll have a conditioning stint in the AHL first.

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