The way young players have stormed the league in recent seasons, people just assume Sam Reinhart won’t get much better and be a bust. If Reinhart wasn’t the second overall pick, he’d be impressing everyone with his improvement. While I don’t think he’ll ever be a true superstar, I’m still a big fan of Reinhart going forward. Reinhart was on the ice for all four Sabres goals on Thursday, scoring a goal and two assists with two shots in the win over the Islanders. That puts Reinhart at 15 points in his past 16 games making him an elite streamer at the moment. For those in dynasties, Reinhart should develop into a top 100 player eventually but towards the bottom end. He’ll be a beast in real life, but the lack of PIM will keep his value down. For those in redrafts, use him while he’s hot. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights (just a heads up, I have seen minimal hockey over the last two nights with my deep run in my poker tournament, so a lot of this is strictly boxscore based:
Frederik Andersen – 44 saves on 46 shots in the 3-2 SO win over the Predators. Very good season for Andersen to this point. It’s a shame Toronto is so bad defensively because Andersen would be pushing a top 5 goaltender if his GAA went down.
Anton Khudobin – 21 saves on 22 shots in the 6-1 win over the Rangers. We know to play Khudobin whenever he starts right now. The notable thing is the Rangers are going to be pretty bad down the stretch once they gut this team approaching the deadline.
Zdeno Chara – Goal and an assist with five shots. His days of being a fantasy beast are well behind him.
Patrice Bergeron – Two goals on seven shots. What a sicko Bergeron is. Real life, fantasy, doesn’t matter. Bergeron is killing it in all of the categories as always.
Matt Grzelcyk – Two assists. Nothing to see here although Grzelcyk is somehow +18 in 34 games this season.
Henrik Lundqvist 12 saves on 16 shots in 27:25 before being pulled. Man, I feel bad for The King because the Rangers are a disaster.
Connor McDavid – Goal and an assist with two shots. Despite that, the Oilers were killed by the Kings. God, Chiarelli is the worst.
Anze Kopitar – Goal and an assist with two shots. No surprise that Kopitar bounced back, but it’s great to see his offense thriving despite the lack of quality wingers for him to play with.
Trevor Lewis – Two assists with two shots. Two first names, can’t trust him. In all seriousness, Lewis is the generic third line center that doesn’t matter for fantasy.
Drew Doughty – Two assists with three shots. We’re getting best case scenario for Doughty this season.
Jack Eichel – Goal and an assist with five shots and two penalty minutes. This gets Eichel right to a point per game on the season. Almost four shots per game, PIM are up, good stuff all around.
Evan Rodrigues – Goal and an assist with two shots. Nothing to really see here.
Johnny Gaudreau – Goal and an assist with four shots. This game was a battle of the studs are Sean Monahan scored the other two Calgary goals and Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist with four shots for the Devils. Nothing to learn here, just have to appreciate these guys. I admit I was too low on Monahan’s fantasy upside, but at least I was right about Hall.
Claude Giroux – Goal and two assists with two shots and two penalty minutes. The Flyers are really making a move towards the playoffs and it’s solely because of their top five. Giroux has been incredible this season, no way around it.
Travis Konecny – Two goals and two PIM. As long as he’s on the top line with Giroux, Konecny is an elite streamer.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Three assists with a shot. Ghost Bear now has more points than last season in 26 less games. Seems like an okay bounce back.
P.K. Subban – Two goals on six shots over two games. It’s nice to see Subban back to being the fantasy stud he was outside of last season.
Scott Hartnell – Two assists with three shots and five PIM. There’s some value in deep leagues for the big PIM but his days of being 12’er relevant are over.
Ryan Dzingel – Two assists with three shots playing almost 21 minutes. If the minutes are that high, he’s a fine streamer.
Alex Edler – Two assists with five shots. The hits and blocks are nice making Edler a nice option in those formats. Not quite enough here in normal 12’ers.
Victor Hedman – Goal and an assist with three shots. Okay start since he returned but I’m sure Hedman will get rolling sooner than later. Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Yanni Gourde all had a goal and assist as well. Gourde is now in strong consideration for being a bottom end hold.
Tyler Johnson – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. He slowed down from his torrid stretch but I’m still holding Johnson. Doesn’t sound right typing that out but not deleting it now!
Carter Hutton – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 6-1 win over the Avalanche. I’d like to thank Hutton for saving my bacon in a few fantasy leagues this season.
Vince Dunn – Three assists with a shot. I’m a big fan of Dunn’s long term fantasy potential but there’s not enough here at the moment.
Brayden Schenn – Two goals on three shots with five PIM. A true six category stud, Schenn’s matched last season’s point total and should set a career high in the coming weeks.
Paul Stastny – Goal and an assist. Stastny is a decent streamer but unless he’s on one of his biannual hot streaks, there’s no reason to hold.
Matt Cullen – Goal and an assist with three shots. Not going to lie, I regularly forget that Cullen is still in the NHL.
Alex Goligoski – Two assists with a shot. Not good enough to stomach that plus-minus.
Derek Stepan – Two assists with two shots. Big fan of his game but Stepan is now in the streamer category unless you’re including faceoff wins.
Kevin Connauton – Goal and an assist with seven shots. It seems like Connauton has a couple games like this a season. He’s a decent deep league option if he’s getting the minutes, the problem is that Connauton’s minutes are all over the place.
Nick Cousins – Two goals on four shots. He’s had a couple big games lately but I don’t see the upside for Cousins long term.
Tyler Seguin – Two goals on three shots. Four game goal streak for Seguin as he’s on pace to top 40 goals if he stays healthy.
Brent Seabrook – Two assists with three shots. Definitely not. Seabrook’s contract is worse than his fantasy value but I still have no interest at all.
David Perron – Two assists with four shots. I keep thinking Perron is going to cool off and it just won’t happen.
Reilly Smith – Two assists with shot, as William Karlsson scored and Jonathan Marchessault had a goal and an assist. Can’t believe this is one of the best lines in hockey.
Colin Miller – Two assists. Bottom end hold right now.
Brent Burns – Three assists with five shots. Brent Burns doing Brent Burns things! Sadly, that includes being -2 this season.
Joe Pavelski – Two goals on five shots. Little Joe has been much better lately but he’s still been a big disappointment.
Timo Meier – Goal and an assist with three shots. I’m a big fan of Meier’s upside, and with his time on the first line and second power play unit now, Meier is still a solid streamer.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Monday recapping all of the weekend’s action. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or make any suggestions below. I’ll be sure to respond to everyone on a more regular basis again, at least after I get a good night’s sleep tonight (heading to bed now at 4 am). Thanks for reading, take care!
