Twenty-two games. One regulation loss. That’s what the Colorado Avalanche have done so far, cementing themselves as the best team in the the league. In fact, the teams tied for second place as closer to 25th in the standings than they are to Colorado. They’re in the midst of a nine game winning streak, with two wins over the weekend, both by shutout. It started with a MacKenzie Blackwood masterpiece on Saturday, making 35 saves in the 3-0 win over Nashville, before Scott Wedgewood had an easier 22 save shutout in the 1-0 win over Chicago. Wedgewood has been the #1 overall player so far because why not? Yay goalies. Blackwood is back now from injury and getting his fair share of starts. Yes, right now Wedgewood is the #1, but it should only be a matter of time until it flips back. Regardless, both of them are clearly must own for the time being, and barring injury, both should be for the rest of the season. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Friday’s Games:
Filip Gustavsson – 19 save shutout in the 5-0 win over the Penguins. Both Wild goalies are on a heater right now. I highlighted Wallstedt repeatedly the last two weeks, and I will again later (spoiler alert!), but Gustavsson is also back into hold territory.
Matt Boldy – Two goals and an assist with four shtos. Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson-Ek each had a goal and an assist with two shots. The Pens had no answer for the top players on the Wild. JEEK is in bottom end hold range, while the other two should easily be top 25 players.
Brock Faber – Two assists. Faber has played his way onto the fringe with a lean towards bottom end hold. He’s a definite hold in blocks leagues.
Jordan Staal – Two goals. Even with seven goals on the season, Staal is an easy pass outside of the deepest of leagues.
Sebastian Aho – Two assists with two shots. Aho is right back to his usual point per game range.
K’Andre Miller – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. He’s cooled off a bit lately, but I’m still holding Miller in all leagues for the time being.
Gabe Vilardi – Two goals on four shots with two PIM. Bottom end hold everywhere with upside to push towards a top 100 player if Vilardi can get the shot rate up.
Eric Comrie – 24 saves on 29 shots in the 4-3 loss to Carolina. Connor Hellebuyck is out for 4-6 weeks, which makes Comrie the main man. He’s not a particularly good goalie, but the Jets system should be able to limit the damage. I’d grab Comrie everywhere if you need the help.
Morgan Geekie – Two goals on three shots. Somehow, Geekie isn’t slowing down at all. Shooting 27% certainly helps, but he’s already halfway to last season’s career high of 33 goals, which was almost double his previous career high.
Nikita Zadorov – Two assists with two shots. His value depends solely on the size of your league. In shallow leagues with banger categories, he’s a nice streamer if you need those non-points contributions. In deeper leagues, he’s a big help.
Jeremy Swayman – 31 saves on 32 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Kings. Swayman was a massive swing and a miss by me this season. That said, the 2.84/.907 isn’t amazing, but he should be a solid #2 in 12’ers.
Alex Tuch – Four assists with a shot. Of course after the Sabres no showed the third period against the Flames, they scored nine goals on the Blackhawks. All of a sudden, Tuch is just under a point per game again and is clearly must-own.
Tage Thompson – Goala nda n assist wiwth four shots. Tage has a six game goal streak. Safe to say he’s back on track.
Jason Zucker – Goal and two assists. Zucker is an elite streamer, as he’s up to 10 points in 13 games on the season following his absence due to a horrible sickness.
Josh Doan – Two goals on four shots with two PIM. Doan is on the first line right now with Tage and Tuch. He’s also in elite streamer territory.
Tyler Bertuzzi – Two goals on five shots, both assisted by Connor Bedard. Bertuzzi has been on a massive tear for a while, but especially since he moved with Bedard. Easy hold in all formats.
Sam Rinzel – Two assists with a shot. I had fairly high hopes for Rinzel going into the season, but it hasn’t panned out as well. In dynasties, there’s still value, but in redrafts, I’m not really interested anywhere.
Saturday’s Games
Zach Werenski – Goal and an assist with seven shots. Werenski always seems to do well when he goes home to Michigan to play Detroit. Then again, he seems to do well against everyone these days.
Patrick Kane – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. Kane is on the fringe with a lean towards holding while his shot rate is pushing three per game.
Ben Chiarot – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. And there’s your annual Chiarot update!
Moritz Seider – Goal and an assist with three shots. It’s been a decent step forward offensively so far this season for Seider. Is he going to sustain it? I’m a bit skeptical, but the huge shot rate jump gives me some pause that it’s real.
Jordan Binnington – 30 saves on 31 shots in the 2-1 win over the Islanders. Even with this game, Binnington stays in the desperation tier. It’s been very ugly for the Blues.
Mattias Ekholm – Goal and two assists with three shots, +5. Safe to say Ekholm and Evan Bouchard (3A, +5) dominated the game. Ekholm is on the fringe in non-blocks leagues. He stumbles into a decent amount of points and is okay enough in all of the categories to not hurt you too much.
Jack Roslovic – Two goals on four shots. Roslovic has lost his PP1 spot (to Henrique for god knows what reason?) so he’s back on the fringe.
Anton Lundell – Goal and an assist with five shots. The points have been very godo for Lundell in his elevated role. He’s a bottom end hold.
Mackie Samoskevich – Goal and an assist with four shots. He’s very clearly a middling streamer.
Brandon Hagel – Two goals and two assists with five shots and two PIM. After a very rough start, Hagel has been an absolute monster. This is why you don’t panic with very high draft picks. The vast majority of the time, it works out.
Nikita Kucherov – Goal and two assists with two shots and two PIM. He did that in 5 minutes of ice time! Sadly, he was injured in the game. We should get an update on Monday.
Anthony Cirelli – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Brayden Point also left the game early. If he’s going to miss any time, Cirelli becomes must own.
Jakob Chychrun – Goal and an assist wiwth two shots and two PIM. Insane start to the season for Chychrun, who is currently the #2 overall defenseman. I don’t think it lasts, but he should be a #1 in 12’ers.
Tim Stutzle – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM. A bit of it is shooting luck, but Stutzle has been saving the Sens while Tkachuk is out. He’s right at a point per game.
Mason Marchment – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. I was expecting a bit better from Marchment in Seattle. Right now, he’s in the middling streamer range, and closer to bottom end than better.
Ryker Evans – Two assists with a shot. Evans has decent points so far, but he’s not contributing any secondary stats. I’m not really interested right now.
Sidney Crosby – Goal and an assist. There’s no slowing down Crosby right now. Thirteen goals in 21 games is simply incredible.
Nico Hischier – Two goals and an assist with five shots and two PIM. Jesper Bratt dished three assists, adding six shots. The Devils were beaten 6-3 by the Flyers, but it sure wasn’t their fault. Hischier is a slight step behind his usual pace, but I’m not concerned.
Noah Cates – Goal and two assists with four shots. Bottom end streamer.
Sean Couturier – Two assists with a shot. Couturier is also in bottom end streamer range. It’s hard to do more than that when you’re averaging under 1.5 shots per game.
Tyson Foerster – Two goals on three shots. Foerster actually scored the two goals in a 17 second span. He’s into middling streamer range while he’s hot in the goal scoring department.
William Nylander – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. The Leafs are in shambles right now, but it sure as hell isn’t Nylander’s fault. He has a whopping 29 points in 19 games.
Mike Matheson – Two assists with a shot. Matheson has played his way onto the fringe in standard leagues, which I didn’t expect with the arrival of…
Noah Dobson – Two goals on three shots. He’s not going to touch his level from two seasons ago as long as Hutson is healthy, but Dobson should be either a #2 or top end #3.
Josh Anderson – Two goals. Deep league only streamer.
Ivan Demidov – Two assists with a shot. The shot rate is shockingly really bad. I’m still holding Demidov because you see the flashes, and 17 points in 21 games is very good, but it’s getting iffy.
Vladislav Gavrikov – Goal and an assist. Not much to see here, even though he’s stumbling into some points playing with Fox.
Jack Eichel – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. Even with Eichel slowing down a bit, he’s still on pace for about 115 points while getting four shots on goal per game. Pretty, pretty good.
Troy Terry – Goal and an assist with three shots. Terry had fallen off a bit the last couple seasons with the team around him struggling, but a career high in points is well within reach. He’s almost a lock for a new high in assists. He’s a borderline top 50 player right now.
Jackson LaCombe – Goal and an assist with four shots. LaCombe is on the fringe with a lean towards holding. The upside is good enough to justify the spot for the bottom of your roster.
Cutter Gauthier – Goal and an assist with six shots and two PIM. Gauthier jumping up to a top ten forward in his second season is remarkable. I’m not sure it holds, but he’s going to be a top 25 player for years to come. You can’t argue against a 4.5 shots per game rate.
Jason Robertson – Goal and an assist with six shots. Six game goal streak for Robertson, who has fourteen points in that span. Safe to say that he’s balanced out his poor shooting luck to open the season.
Nazem Kadri – Two assists with three shots. The plus-minus is ugly, and Kadri hasn’t provided the PIM that we’re used to. There is a chance Kadri ends up getting traded which would almost certainly help his value, even with less playing time. He’s still a clear hold right now.
Sunday’s Games
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen – 29 saves on 30 shots in the 4-1 win over the Hurricanes. He was even taken out on the Carolina goal, yet the goal stood. Look, UPL has been bad to open the season, but we’ve seen the upside before. Ruff keeps going with who he thinks the hot hand is, and UPL played for the second straight game. My guess is he starts against a struggling Pens team on Wednesday now? If you need goalie help, you can take the gamble.
Ryan McLeod – Two assists with a shot. Very nice middle six’er in real life, but McLeod is only a bottom end streamer for fantasy.
Jesper Wallstedt – 32 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Jets. Insane run for Wallstedt right now. As mentioned above, I’d hold both Wild goalies right now after I wasn’t interested in either not that long ago. Yay, goalies!
Spencer Knight – 25 saves on 26 shots as the tough luck loser in the 1-0 game to the Avs. Knight has been the reason the Blackhawks are overachieving. Ride it while it lasts.
David Rittich – 19 save shutout in the 1-0 SO win over the Kraken, who also got a shutout from Joey Daccord (34/34). Rittich is a fine streamer depending on the matchup, while Daccord is a bottom end hold.
Macklin Celebrini – Goal and an assist with five shots. He’s already reached superstar level of play at age 19. Unreal.
Yaroslav Askarov – 34 saves on 35 shots in the 3-1 win over the Bruins. Askarov has been very good, but that’s only turned into a 2.97/.905 because of how attacking the Sharks are. I’m all in long term, but I’m very skeptical for the rest of the season. I’d hold for now, but I’m expecting his play to drop off, and that could make it quite ugly.
Rasmus Andersson – Three assists with two shots. I fully expect Andersson to get moved, and that could help his value. However, right now, he’s on a massive heater with ten points in his last five games. Hold him while he’s a hot schmotato.
Mikael Backlund – Two assists with two shots. Backlund has fallen off tobecome a bottom end streamer.
Blake Coleman – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Same story for Coleman, who has two assists on the season, but eight goals.
With only one game on Tuesday, we will do the Three Point Challenge for Wednesday’s games. I’m going to hold off for now about where I want you to post your pick, because if MarmosDad is going to have a post on Wednesday morning, I think we should give our picks on his post. I will post an edit here if he’s not going to have a post, and then we will do it here.
That’s all for now guys. I will have an updated hold/stream list on Friday. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
