On Wednesday, I said the following about Patrick Eaves: “He played on the first line and first power play unit so right now Eaves is a top end streamer while that’s the case. You could even hold him.” Well, he showed why that’s the case on Thursday night as Eaves had a hat trick in the first period against the Blackhawks. He finished the game with those three goals and six shots on goal. He has to be held now or picked up where available as long as he’s on the first line. Here’s what else I saw the last two nights around the league:
Petr Mrazek – 22 saves on 23 shots in the 3-1 win over the Senators on Wednesday. Dude has a 1.94 GAA on the season now. Seriously.
Danny DeKeyser – Goal on two shots. Still pretty bottom end but as long as Niklas Kronwall is out, you can use him in 12’ers or certainly anything deeper.
Henrik Zetterberg – Goal on two shots. On pace for over 40 assists which is making up for the lack of shots and goals.
Henrik Lundqvist – 34 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Penguins. The King is starting to heat up which is great timing for the Rangers with all of their injuries.
Jesper Fast – Goal on two shots. Bottom end streamer in 12’ers but has value in anything deeper as long as he’s in the top 6.
Keith Yandle – Assist and three shots playing almost 23 minutes. He’s really heating up with the increased role which is great to see. Should be a big second half.
Ryan Miller – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 2-1 win over the Coyotes. Hotter than a pistol at the moment but I’d be looking to sell high. The Canucks are a mess defensively and now Alex Edler is out indefinitely so it’s only going to get worse.
Jannik Hansen – Goal on two shots. Glad I got the stream call right here. Same boat as he’s been in all year; if you don’t need the special teams points, use him. Otherwise, leave him to stream or be on the wire since he’s not on the power play.
Max Domi – Assist with two shots and two PIM. The goals are inconsistent but he’s on pace for around 35 assists as a rookie which is great to see. He’s an elite talent and should only get better in the years to come.
Jhonas Enroth – 25 saves on 29 shots in the 5-2 loss to the Islanders. Jonathan Quick is day-to-day so Enroth is a good short term add despite the dud yesterday.
Johnny Boychuk – Goal on five shots. If he’s available because he was out injured, grab him. The minutes are going back up along with the shots.
Cazey Cizikas – Goal and an assist with three shots. And there’s your annual Cizikas update!
Anders Lee – Goal on one shot. Starting to pick up the pace but I’m leaving to stream at the moment.
John Tavares – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’s starting to creep towards a point per game again and everything else still looks great which is nice to see. He’s not going to pay off first round value but Tavares could still finish as a top 20 skater.
Justin Bailey – Seven shots on goal in his NHL debut. Looked great and earned more playing time in the third period. In super deep leagues, he’s a good short term add until he goes back to Rochester.
Jack Eichel – Seven shots on goal. Disappointing to not get on the score sheet but it’s great that the shots on goal are already elite at 19 years old.
Steve Mason – 41 saves on 42 shots in the 5-1 win over the Sabres. Made a ton of point blank saves, including on 3 straight power plays for the Sabres bridging the first and second periods. The numbers are still ugly on the whole but he keeps starting so he has to be held in 12’ers.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Assist with two shots extending the point streak to 10 games. Hotter than a pistol.
Radko Gudas – 17 PIM doing what his owners like to see. From an NHL point of view, it was a disgusting cheap shot that got him tossed from the game. The league is worrying about fighting but this clown needs to be hit with a big suspension.
Michael Raffl – Goal and an assist with two shots. Really disappointing he didn’t take advantage of his opportunity this season. He’s not ownable outside of the deepest of leagues.
Wayne Simmonds – Goal on three shots. His amazing heater kept rolling .
Ryan Getzlaf – Two assists. As bad as he was, he’s now tied for 6th in the league in assists. Now Getzlaf needs to start scoring some goals.
David Perron – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM. Right on the fence between hold and stream whenever you can.
Brandon Dubinsky – Goal on four shots with two PIM. Dubi has been outstanding outside of shots on goal. A 55 point pace with 60-70 PIM is very valuable.
Nick Foligno – Two assists with a shot. He’s been pretty disappointing this year in regards to where his ADP was but be honest, you saw it coming, right? Foligno is a slightly worse Dubinsky at this point.
Seth Jones – Assist with four shots playing over 28 minutes. Pretty unlucky to have only 1 goal on 104 shots. His upside is tremendous; it’s hard to remember he’s still only 21.
Brandon Saad – Goal on four shots. 30 goals on over 3 shots per game is right there for Saad which is a nice step in his development.
Tyson Barrie – Two assists. It feels like he hasn’t done much this year yet Barrie has 35 points in 53 games. That’s a 55 point pace with elite special teams points. With all of the young talent in Colorado, Barrie is a great defenseman going forward in dynasties.
Blake Comeau – Goal and an assist with six shots. The shots were fluky because Ottawa is horrible defensively and his goal was an empty netter. I can see streaming him in 12’ers in good matchups but he’s definitely not a hold.
Jarome Iginla – Two goals and an assist with seven shots and two PIM. He must be sick of all the attention all of the other old guys are getting! I’d still rather stream him than hold in 12’ers because it’s bottom end with horrible plus-minus but I could see holding him if you need the special teams points.
Nathan MacKinnon – Goal on six shots. He’ll be in the top 20 overall next season. MacKinnon is a borderline top 10 player in dynasty leagues as he’s still only 20 years old.
Carl Soderberg – Two assists. He’s up to 40 points already which is quite the surprise. Soderberg has nice talent around him and he’s playing well with Gabriel Landeskog (assist) so look for him to maintain his value, at least for this season.
Mike Hoffman – Goal and an assist with seven shots in two games. Arguably my best call in my preseason rankings, he’s added the power play points necessary to be an elite fantasy player.
Erik Karlsson – Three assists with six shots and two PIM. He became the first player to reach 50 assists on the season. It’s remarkable what Karlsson is doing right now and a shame the rest of the Senators roster is so top heavy that we won’t see him in the playoffs.
Mark Stone – Goal on seven shots. The increase in shots lately, along with the time on ice boost, has been great for his value. With how shallow the Senators roster is, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have their top forwards playing 20+ minutes a night.
Alex Ovechkin – Three goals on ten shots. He’s back where we are used to seeing him; leading the league in goals. Insert my usual spiel about Ovechkin being the greatest goal scorer and the current #1 fantasy player here.
Nicklas Backstrom – Three assists with four shots. Over a point per game and is close to two shots per game now which is acceptable assuming you have enough shooters on your roster. It’ll keep him from being a top 10 fantasy player but he’s certainly in the top 2o.
T.J. Oshie – Assist with two shots and two PIM. I still like him a lot as a trade target since he’s guaranteed to keep this up playing with Ovechkin and Backstrom.
Charlie Coyle – Goal with two shots and two PIM playing almost 23 minutes. Woah. This is exactly what I like to see. I’m picking him up now in 12’ers because the only thing that’s held him back before is playing time.
Mikael Granlund – Goal on four shots. Solid assists but doesn’t do enough for him to be held in 12’ers.
Zach Parise – Two assists with three shots. Goals haven’t been there lately but they will come. It’s nice for him to be contributing elsewhere in the meantime.
Ryan Suter – Goal and an assist with three shots playing 34:43. Good God. He deserves inhuman status now along with Karlsson. Everything is above average across the board.
Thomas Vanek – Assist with three shots and two PIM. Still producing despite only playing 13 minutes. The power play time will definitely be there and at this point in his career, he hits all the categories well enough to be a hold.
Tuukka Rask – 34 saves on 36 shots in the 6-2 win over the Jets. Meh, he was coming off a big dud and the only thing he’s consistent in is his inconsistency.
Patrice Bergeron – Two goals on nine shots with five PIM. He’s a top 20 skater right now which is remarkable for somebody known for his defensive prowess.
Brett Connolly – Three assists with two shots. He’s a bottom end streamer as long as he’s on the first line.
Loui Eriksson – Goal and an assist with three shots playing over 20 minutes. Still rolling at the perfect time with his impending free agency. The lack of penalty minutes hurt but Loui has been the guy he was in Dallas this year.
Jimmy Hayes – Goal and an assist with three shots. Another guy who’s a decent streamer when needed.
Brad Marchand – Goal and two assists with four shots and two PIM. It pains me that he’s having this good of a season. The biggest reason for his boost is his massive increase in shot rate. Marchand is well over three shots per game at this point.
David Pastrnak – Goal on four shots. Should still be owned in 12’ers, still widely available.
Dustin Byfuglien – Assist with five shots and two PIM. Big Buff doing Big Buff things. He’s a massive plus in the hardest categories for defensemen to be a plus in (anything but assists).
Nikolaj Ehlers – Goal on three shots. Another guy who’s still widely available but should clearly be owned everywhere. The minutes are there, with the minutes have come the shots and with the shots come the goals.
Bryan Little – Goal and an assist with two shots. The plus-minus has fallen off but he’s still on pace for 65ish points.
Blake Wheeler – Two assists with three shots and seven PIM. He still doesn’t get enough credit for how good he is. Have I mentioned that ESPN had him ranked in the 60s?
Kari Lehtonen – 44 saves on 46 shots in the win over Chicago. The wins have been there when he plays but the rest of his numbers are mediocre or worse.
John Klingberg – Goal and an assist with two shots. Now that the shots are over two per game by a decent margin, he’s a plus in all categories. He’s a top end guy in dynasties as he’s only 23 years old and the Stars are loaded with young talent.
Tyler Seguin – Two assists with three shots. His inevitable hot streak is starting to happen after his brief cold run. Seguin should finish around 90 points and could fight for the Art Ross if the next guy wasn’t around.
Patrick Kane – Goal on seven shots. Not much else to say about him anymore.
Corey Crawford – 14 saves on 18 shots through one period before getting pulled. Yikes. With how good he’s been all year, Crawford owners should forgive him for this dud.
Duncan Keith – Goal on six shots. He’s still below 2 shots per game and the PIM aren’t there so Keith is still outside the top 10-15 defensemen. He’s so good at everything else that he’s firmly in the top 20, though.
Jonathan Toews – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. Really heating up now and he’d be having an incredible season if he had more than 5 power play points. For comparison, Kane has 25.
Leo Komarov – Assist with two shots. The Leafs roster is a disaster right now with the injuries they have so Komarov is really all that they have. It sucks for him but he should still be held in 12’ers.
Cam Talbot – 34 saves on 36 shots in the 5-2 win over the Leafs. Nice bounceback for Talbot in a game that quite frankly, he had to play well in.
Jordan Eberle – Three goals and an assist with eight shots. Man, life is good for Eberle owners; I said he was a great trade target when McJesus was close to coming back so hopefully you made a move. His second half value and dynasty value are both rising quickly.
Connor McDavid – Two goals and three assists with five shots. Well, alrighty then. How high does he go in redrafts next year? It’s clearly in the first round at this point but how far do you go? It’s ridiculous how good McDavid is already. Damn Edmonton winning the lotto 🙁 .
Benoit Pouliot – Four assists with a shot. I love it when I’m right! My boldest prediction at the All-Star Break (link here ) would be that Pouliot would be a hold soon with 20+ points the rest of the way. He’s almost halfway there already! Benny is a clear must-own right now.
Sam Bennett – Goal and two assists with a shot and four PIM. He’s had a bunch of multi point games in the last month; now he just needs to find the consistency in the second half.
Johnny Gaudreau – Two assists with a shot. Not even a suspension for presumably being hung over can slow Johnny Hockey down!
Sean Monahan – Goal on four shots. Same as Gaudreau above.
Mark Giordano – Goal on one shot plus four PIM. Everything is in line now with preseason expectations which is amazing when you consider how horrible the first month to six weeks of the season was.
Dougie Hamilton – Assist and five shots. It’s time for him to be owned in all 12’ers again.
Brent Burns – Two assists with ten shots and two PIM. I don’t care that you’re -13, I still love you Brent Burns. He’s number 5 in the player rater for defenseman and that’s with an atrocious plus-minus. Helps when you’re second in the league in shots on goal.
Logan Couture – Goal and three assists with eight shots and two PIM. It’s quite a shame he missed so much of the season because he’s been outstanding while he’s played.
Joonas Donskoi – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’ll have some value as long as he’s playing with Couture, especially as a streamer. The lack of shots keeps him from being a hold at this point.
Patrick Marleau – Goal and an assist with five shots. The plus-minus is horrendous and the lack of penalty minutes hurt but he’s on pace for over 25 goals and assists with incredible special teams points. Not every player is perfect so there’s a lot of value here.
Friday Streamers: There are seven games on the slate tonight so you get a good opportunity to stream to set yourself up for the last couple days of your matchup. Here are my top 3 options:
Jori Lehtera (26.7% owned) – He’s higher owned than my normal standard but I wanted to mention that with Jaden Schwartz returning tonight, the STL line is back together for the Blues. This is a big boost to his value putting him in a great spot to stream tonight where he is available.
Sam Bennett (17.5% ) – Six points in the last three games and he gets to play the Coyotes tonight. Great spot to extend his point streak to four games.
Sam Reinhart (1.o%) – Going back to the well here. Rhino has 4 goals in the last 4 games and I expect the Sabres to come out tonight firing on all cylinders after falling apart early the last two games.
That’s all for now guys. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the latest article from Marv, this time with Rob filling in for Pesos, that came out yesterday. I’ll be back on Monday recapping all of the weekend’s action. As always, feel free to ask any questions and post any comments below. I hope everyone has a great weekend, take care!
