Reid and I covered the Florida Panthers extensively on Thursday’s podcast, and their heater continued on Thursday night. Roberto Luongo posted a 40 save shutout in the 5-0 win over the Canadiens. While the goals against average isn’t great, the save percentage is, and the wins are starting to come through. Given their incredible fantasy playoff schedule, Luongo is easily a #1 goalie for the rest of the season. Glad for all of you Strombone owners. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
David Rittich – 25 saves on 26 shots in the 5-1 win over the Sabres. Rittich posted the world class Ryan Miller shutout giving up his first goal with 18 seconds left. He’s a desperation play outside of the best of matchups.
Sam Bennett – Goal and an assist with three shots. Bennett has been a tease his whole career. He’s a middling streamer at best.
Mark Giordano – Goal and an assist with three shots. Super steady across the board.
T.J. Brodie – Two assists with a shot. He doesn’t do much for me in fantasy, or real life for that matter. Deep leagues, sure. 12’ers, no.
Mark Jankowski – Goal and an assist with four shots. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Jankowski this year as a long term play. Right now, he’s a bottom end streamer.
Johnny Gaudreau – Two assists with a shot. Johnny Hockey has been amazingly consistent all year.
Sidney Crosby – Three assists with three shots. Last season’s goals appear to be an outlier, but the assists are better than they’ve been for the last five years.
Evgeni Malkin – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Malkin is also covered at great lengths on the podcast. He’s been amazing.
Jamie Oleksiak – Goal and an assist with six PIM. Meh, he’s playing a lot now, but he’s only a super deep league option.
Jake Guentzel – Two assists. He’s a hold now with Brassard in the fold.
Conor Sheary – Two goals on three shots. Solid streamer but Sheary is not at hold level yet.
Darcy Kuemper – 16 saves on 17 shots in the 2-1 win over the Canucks. Not going to get easier than that for Kuemper. I’d use him in average home matchups and plus road matchups.
Clayton Keller – Goal and an assist with four shots. His linemates Derek Stepan and Brendan Perlini also had two points. Right now, I’d lean towards holding Keller and streaming the other two, but it’s close with Keller. The upside remains through the roof. Perlini continues to impress me as a deep league dynasty play with the chance of being 12’er relevant in the not-so-distant future.
David Pastrnak – Two assists with four shots. Pasta looks like he’ll be a third round pick in 12’er redrafts next season instead of a second rounder.
Zdeno Chara – Two assists with four shots. Chara is past the point of being 12’er relevant unless you’re in need of the hits plus blocks at the end of the week.
Nikolaj Ehlers – Goal and an assist with four shots. Ehlers is on pace for over a 30+30 season with over three shots per game. That said, I still think we see better in the future.
Nico Hischier – Goal and an assist with four shots. Hischier has been fairly cold putting him in middling streamer territory.
Carl Soderberg – Two goals. And there’s your biannual Soderberg update!
Mikko Rantanen – Two assists with four shots. Rantanen is up to a point per game on the season. He’s another discussion point on the podcast because it’s seemingly gone under the radar, along with some other massive seasons.
Seth Jones – Goal and an assist with seven shots and two PIM. This game gives Jones a new career in points and PIM. He’s also been there in shots for a while now. Jones is looking like a solid #2 going forward with the potential to be a bottom end #1.
Thomas Vanek – Two goals on eight shots. It was nice to see him play over 15 minutes. I also still expect him to have some major fracas with Torts. Vanek is a solid streamer but not elite unless the minutes become sustainable.
Boone Jenner – Goal and an assist with two shots. Remember when Jenner was one of three NHL players to score 30 goals and have 75 PIM two years ago? Those were the days. Now, he’s near irrelevant.
Zach Werenski – Goal and an assist with four shots. He’s been a steady season for Werenski. Better shot rate and more goals has been nice the the assists have plummeted. That said, he’s still only 20 years old so the best is yet to come.
Pierre-Luc Dubois – Two assists. I gushed over Dubois’ potential for a few minutes on Thursday’s podcast.
Marc-Andre Fleury – 28 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Red Wings. Fleury might be the MVP of this fantasy season despite missing almost half the year.
Cody Eakin – Two goals and an assist with four shots. Eakin is about the only Golden Knight who hasn’t had a great offseason this year.
Alex Tuch – Two goals on three shots. I’m a huge fan of Tuch going forward, especially with Vegas making massive strides. We talked about dynasty plays on Thursday but Tuch is a player I forgot to mention. I am driving the bandwagon. All aboard!
Sam Reinhart – Goal and an assist with four shots. The heater continues. Can you ever call it a heater when it’s two months long? Maybe Reinhart is just that good as he rounds into form at 22 years old.
Ryan Dzingel – Two goals on three shots with two PIM. Dzingel played almost 20 minutes with quality linemates so he’s a solid streamer.
Ryan Spooner – Goal and two assists with two shots. Spoonman!!! He’s been rolling since going to the Garden making him an elite streamer.
Kevin Hayes – Goal and an assist with three shots. Hayes is a middling streamer as he settles around the 50 point range.
Anthony Cirelli – Goal and two assists with three shots. Doesn’t matter who puts on the Bolts jersey, they put up all of the points. The 20 year old isn’t getting the minutes now to be relevant outside of the deepest of leagues but he’s a decent dynasty option.
Chris Kunitz – Goal and an assist with two shots. Cares, I don’t have them.
Mikhail Sergachev – Two assists with four shots and two PIM. I put Sergachev on the fringe right now and would actually lean towards cutting bait in redrafts once Ryan McDonagh returns.
Keith Yandle – Three assists with a shot. Evgenii Dadonov, Vincent Trocheck and Aleksander Barkov all had two points. The studs on Florida, they are studly. They really could be a problem for Tampa or the Metro division winner in the first round.
Ryan Getzlaf – Two assists with four shots. Quick, who leads the league in assists per game? It’s Mr. Getzlaf!
Rickard Rakell – Two goals on four shots. The boost in shot rate gives Rakell the opportunity to be a 35 goal scorer consistently with a 40 goal season a realistic possibility with some luck,
Ryan Johansen – Goal and an assist with five shots as Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg also had two points. First line, they be good.
Justin Williams – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM. He’s had a surprisingly decent season to reach middling to elite streamer status.
Elias Lindholm – Two assists playing over 21 minutes. I really thought Lindholm was going to break out this season but he remains a middling streamer.
Cam Talbot – 30 saves on 31 shots in the 2-1 SO win over the Islanders. I’d say it’s been an up and down season for Talbot but it’s been almost exclusively down.
Christopher Gibson – 35 saves on 36 shots as the tough luck loser. He’s made two appearances this season and has saved 82 of 86 shots. Seems good, but I don’t see much here.
Jeff Carter – Goal and an assist with three shots. Damn shame he missed the majority of the season due to injury.
Jonathan Quick – 25 saves on 26 shots in the 3-1 win over the Capitals. Quick has exceeded my expectations to be a bottom end #1.
Martin Jones – 16 save shutout in the 2-0 win over the Blues. Doesn’t get easier than that for Jones.
Jake Allen – 34 saves on 35 shots as the tough luck loser. Carter Hutton was scratched after an injury on Thursday so Allen could get all of the starts if it’s serious. That said, I have no faith in him at this point.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Monday recapping all of the weekend’s action. Please ask any questions or leave any comments below. Thanks for reading, take care!
