The Ducks season has gone very poorly. Not Sabres poorly, but still, the results have been extremely disappointing. The good news is that their young players have shown some flashes of what can be in the future, and on Thursday night, their two cornerstones scored their first career goals. Trevor Zegras scored in his 11th career game while Jamie Drysdale scored in his first. For this season, we shouldn’t expect much from either. At the moment, Zegras is a bottom end streamer, while Drysdale should be left on the waiver wire until we see how much he plays, or if he even stays on the Ducks. In dynasties, there’s a ton to like for both. Zegras has the chance to be one of the best playmakers in the league who scores plenty of goals for himself. Drysdale doesn’t have massive offensive upside, but he should be good enough in all facets of the game, including quarterbacking the power play, that he ends up as a #2 fantasy defenseman while playing top pair minutes for the Ducks. It may be bleak now, but the future is bright in SoCal. Let’s take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
Jaroslav Halak – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 4-1 win over the Sabres. The goal was a fluky deflection off his defenseman, but these are the exact kinds of games we should be expecting from Halak against the Sabres. Lucky for him, he should get plenty of games against them going forward with the Bruins still playing Buffalo seven more times.
David Krejci – Three assists with two shots. Krejci has fallen off a bit this season leaving him as a middling streamer for assists.
David Pastrnak – Goal and an assist with six shots. Pasta is dominating across the board making him a no-brainer top five player going forward. What’s the line on how many points he gets against the Sabres ROS? 12.5?
Philipp Grubauer – 19 saves on 20 shots in the 5-1 win over the Wild. This was one of the most dominating performances I’ve ever seen. Colorado was outshooting Minnesota 13-1 seven minutes into the game, and they ended up outshooting the Wild 55-20. Didn’t get much easier for Grubauer who has been superb from the get go.
Mikko Rantanen – Two goals and two assists with six shots. Gabriel Landeskog and Natham MacKinnon each had a goal and two assists with two PIM as the top line for the Avs ran wild. Landeskog has picked it up as of late to push towards a point per game while the other two are well past that per usual.
Oliver Bjorkstrand – Three assists with three shots. Bjorkstrand has caught fire since Torts finally boosted his minutes back up to where they should be. He’s an easy hold again.
Seth Jones – Two goals on six shots. He’s playing at a 40 point pace over 82 games with a poor plus-minus. Sure, the PIM are nice and the shot rate is above average, but this is why I was low on Jones going into the season. He’s looking like a bottom end #3.
Sebastian Aho – Two goals. The shot rate isn’t as high as I would hope, but Aho is going to be a great fantasy asset either way.
Kris Letang – Two assists with two shots. Letang has managed to stay healthy so far which is all we ever wanted. Sure, he’s not as good of a player as he used to be, but he’s still a top 15 defenseman at this current level.
Jack Hughes – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’s fallen off quite a bit to the point where Hughes is fringy. I’d slightly lean towards holding him, but it’s tenuous.
Travis Konecny – Three assists with four shots. If he can get the shot rate up, Konecny would easily be a top 100 player. As is, I think he’s still a hold, but you need to have guys on your team that can make up the shots.
Oskar Lindblom – Two goals on three shots. The minutes aren’t there for Lindblom to make a fantasy impact.
Nick Leddy – Three assists with a shot. Leddy is the definition of an AAGNOF. He gives you literally nothing but assists, but if you need them, he has value to you. Assists ain’t got no face!
Michael Dal Colle – Goal and an assist. Dal Colle had 5 shots in 16 games before this one. Nothing else needs to be said.
Mattias Janmark – Goal and an assist with five shots. Janmark has had a decent bounce back with the Blackhawks this season. He’s a bottom end streamer that can get a boost depending on who he’s playing with.
Victor Hedman – Goal and an assist with three shots. Hedman is the primary example of consistency from the blue line in the NHL.
Calle Jarnkrok – Two goals on five shots. This offensive surge from Jarnkrok has come completely out of nowhere. I don’t really buy it and think he’s only a middling streamer at the moment.
Juuse Saros – 40 saves on 41 shots in the 2-1 win over the Panthers. Saros is suffering from the same thing as Gibson in Anaheim: playing on a bad team. I think he’s a step above desperation, but barely.
Robby Fabbri – Hat trick on four shots. Props to Fabbri for turning his career around in Detroit after the brutal knee injury in St. Louis. His shot rate keeps Fabbri as a middling streamer.
Mikko Koskinen – 24 saves on 25 shots in the 2-1 win over the Jets. Koskinen is only worth streaming in plus matchups. His numbers have been bad and I don’t see them turning around.
Connor McDavid – Two goals, both assisted by Tyson Barrie. All of a sudden, McDavid is only one goal off the league lead while opening up a 9 point lead for the league lead in points (over his teammate). I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone playing hockey at this level before. Barrie now leads defensemen in points making me look smart for predicting 50+ points from him.
Conor Garland – Goal and an assist with four shots. Garland was in the midst of a rough patch, but thankfully Tocchet put him back on the top line and he produced right away. I’m still holding him.
Rickard Rakell – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. Still on the fringe and depends on team needs, but I lean towards holding for the elite shot rate.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Monday recapping the action from the weekend. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
