Outside of more COVID cases and postponements, there wasn’t a lot that went on over the weekend in the NHL, at least with a fantasy impact. The big story was Marc-Andre Fleury returning to Vegas, the first face of the franchise. Fleury was excellent, stopping 30 of 31 shots to win the game 2-1 for the Blackhawks. MAF’s overall numbers are more of a top end #3 goalie, but the volume is really good. I’m indifferent towards holding him or not, but I’d lean that way since it’s been better after the brutal first month. There’s also some additional upside if he moves somewhere at the trade deadline as a rental. I assume Chicago will ask him what he wants at this point in his career but they’re well out of the playoffs so for a couple months, I could see him going to a team for a few months before retirement. The schedule for Chicago over the next 10 days is quite appealing before it gets ugly at the end of the month, which is more reason to hold Fleury for now.
I hope everyone likes the redesign of the website! Let’s take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Friday’s Games
Blake Coleman – Goal and an assist with five shots and two PIM. The shots are elite, the PIM are strong, and the hits are very good. The problem is that he has only 6+5, partially due to no power play time. It’s absurd given some of the guys on the second PP unit like Lucic. He’s a bottom end to solid streamer depending on your categories.
Matthew Tkachuk – Goal and an assist with three shots. The top line has been excellent for the entire season. Tkachuk is on pace for his best season yet.
Brady Skjei – Goal and two assists with two shots. Skjei has eight points in the last five games in the last five games after five in his first 28 games. It seems like a fluke, but if you want to add him while he’s a hot schmotato, I don’t object.
Steven Lorentz – Two assists with two shots. Easy pass in all formats.
Andrei Svechnikov – Two goals on six shots with two PIM. Svechnikov has been outstanding once again despite playing only 17 minutes per game. That’s pretty much the only reason he’s not at a point per game or above.
Ville Husso – 26 saves on 27 shots in the 5-1 win over the Capitals. Husso has been very good this season after struggling in the past. I’d stream him in most matchups.
Pavel Buchnevich – Two goals and an assist with three shots. I always liked Buch and really liked the fit in St. Louis, but I didn’t see him being a top 20 forward. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop off a bit, but it’s possible that this is real.
Ryan O’Reilly – Two assists with a shot. His offense has dropped off quite a bit, but Buchnevich moving to his line helps quite a bit. I’m still holding because we know the upside.
Robert Thomas – Two assists. All your assists are belong to Thomas! Again, it comes down to categories and team needs for Thomas.
Saturday’s Games
Jason Robertson – Three assists with three shots. I really don’t get why the top line for Dallas played ~15 minutes each, but they produced anyways. Robertson has taken another step forward this season as he’s well over a point per game.
Jonathan Huberdeau – Goal and an assist with two shots. Thirteen points in his last five games. Is that good?
Anthony Duclair – Goal and an assist with three shots. Duclair’s shot rate needs to come up to make up for his shooting regression that’s coming, but he needs to be a hold in all formats.
Carter Verhaeghe – Two goals on five shots. He’s still with Barkov on the first line and the shots are starting to come up. Therefore, I lean towards holding Verhaeghe again, but it’s still on the fringe.
Sebastian Aho – Two assists with a shot. Aho is on a 40+60 pace right now with over three shots per game. Slam dunk top 20 player.
Tomas Hertl – Hat trick on seven shots. All three goals were assisted by Brent Burns and two were assisted by Timo Meier. Those two each had six shots as well. The top guys are getting all the minutes they can handle right now. Hertl’s a hold either way, but Meier being on his line instead of Couture’s helps a ton.
James van Riemsdyk – Two goals on four shots. His usage is up with all the guys missing for Philly, but JVR is just a middling streamer.
Alex Kerfoot – Goal and two assists with two shots. Kerfoot is up to elite streamer with eight points in the last three games. I don’t expect this to last because of the shot rate, but being on that second line is enough for fantasy value.
Auston Matthews – Two goals on eight shots with two PIM. He’s on a 60 goal pace over 82 games. It looks like Matthews is going to be in the 50-60 range right now if he’s healthy.
Mikko Rantanen – Four assists with four shots playing over 25 minutes. The Avs went down 3-0 right away, but they stormed back to win in overtime. Nazem Kadri, Gabriel Landeskog, and Cale Makar all had two points, while Nathan MacKinnon had a goal on twelve shots. The Avalanche were so good in this game which is no surprise. They’re still my Cup favorite.
Brad Marchand – Two goals on five shots with two PIM. Marchand has managed to match last season’s pace which didn’t seem possible. As far as hitting all of the categories go, Marchand is as good as it gets.
David Pastrnak – Two goals on seven shots. He’s been struggling a bit lately, but I have no concerns about Pasta.
Taylor Hall – Two assists with a shot. He doesn’t get PP1 time because Cassidy needs Foligno in front of the net to miss a bunch of tap-ins. I have Hall as an elite streamer.
Erik Cernak – Two assists with seven hits and four blocks. There’s little offense here, but Cernak is a solid streamer for hits and blocks.
Mikhail Sergachev – Two assists with a shot. It’s crazy that Sergachev is still 23 years old. He’s been disappointing this season for fantasy. I have him as a hold but it’s more on the fringe than I anticipated.
Jimmy Vesey – Goal and an assist with two shots. Vesey played over 19 minutes in this game for reasons unknown. Even with that, I still have him as a bottom end streamer at best.
Oliver Bjorkstrand – Two goals. Bjorkstrand has cooled off quite a bit, but the minutes are more consistent this season than ever before. He’s still a hold.
Jakub Voracek – Two assists with two shots. Middling streamer for assists; pretty straightforward.
Adam Boqvist – Two assists. I’ve been impressed with Boqvist this season. He’s on the fringe because the shots are so poor. I like him a lot long term, but now that Werenski is back, I’d lean towards leaving him on the waiver wire.
Roman Josi – Goal and an assist with seven shots, two hits and three blocks. Just a monster season from Josi in progress. Nashville is arguably the biggest surprise of the season and it starts with Saros and Josi, even with how good Forsberg has been.
Ryan Johansen – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. Johansen has been way better than anticipated with 10+19 in 33 games. The shot rate is still bad so you can go either way. He’s been on PP1 so he’s probably a hold, but I’m skeptical going forward.
Alexandar Georgiev – 13 saves on 14 shots in the 4-1 win over the Ducks. Easy enough. With Igor on the COVID list now, Georgiev is must own.
Ryan Lindgren – Two goals on three shots with two PIM. He’s locked into the top pair with Fox, but there’s next to no offense here. And there’s your annual Lindgren update!
Cal Petersen – 21 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Red Wings. I thought this would be the breakout season from Petersen, but instead, Quick has been the 1A. My hope is that it gets better down the stretch, but I’m not holding Petersen at this point.
Dustin Brown – Two assists with two shots. His workload is down quite a bit this season but Brown is still at three shots per game. He’s a bottom end streamer for shots and hits.
Sunday’s Games
Jordan Kyrou – Goal and an assist with six shots. We’re in the midst of an incredible streak by Kyrou. The breakout of the young players like Kyrou, plus the addition of Buchnevich, has the Blues as a stealth contender. One more defenseman and I’d feel pretty good about them being third in the West behind Colorado and Vegas.
Jordan Binnington – 26 saves on 27 shots in the 2-1 win over the Stars. The overall numbers aren’t good, but I’m still holding and hoping for the best.
Tyler Bertuzzi – Goal and an assist with three shots playing over 23 minutes. Bertuzzi is due to regress shooting over 22%, but he’s been good enough to hold even taking a step back.
Trevor Zegras – Goal and an assist in his second game back. Glad to see him back in the lineup. Zegras is going to a superstar, no doubt about it.
Rickard Rakell – Goal and an assist. Rakell struggled quite a bit with Zegras out, but now that he’s back in the lineup, Rakell is back to a solid streamer.
Three Point Challenge: We’ll do it again for Tuesday’s games. That means no McDavid, Draisaitl, Ovechkin, Huberdeau, Kadri, Stamkos, Rantanen, Kaprizov, Meier and Gaudreau. I’ll go with Kucherov against the Sabres.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Wednesday recapping the action from the next two nights. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
