Most of Buffalo's forwards have started slowly, but their second line has been fantastic. That continued on Thursday, with the majority of the second line out there for four goals, leading the Sabres to a 5-4 OT victory over their rivals in Toronto. For fantasy purposes, it certainly starts with Jack Quinn. Quinn stuffed the stat sheet, scoring two goals, dishing two assists, put four shots on goal, was +4, and got in a fight! That brings him to 4+4 in eight games while pushing close to three shots per game. It's clear how much Ruff trusts this line right now, with Quinn playing over 18 minutes, while Noah Ostlund and Zach Benson each had two assists while playing over 21 minutes. I've been holding Quinn in a 10 man league since the draft, which goes to show you that I think he's a hold in 12'ers. Ostlund has been unbelievable in real life, but I see more middling to solid streamer. Benson falls into the elite streamer category right now. The schedule is pretty light for the Sabres next week with only two games, so I wouldn't prioritize Benson or Ostlund right now, but despite the schedule easing up for a bit, Quinn is standing out enough on a regular basis that I'd be holding him. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Tuesday marked the return of The Frozen Frenzy, where every team in the league plays in a stand alone time slot. It's a cool concept, but I can't understand for the life of me why this doesn't happen on a Saturday instead? I digress. The second game of the night was Florida against the Blue Jackets, and the Florida superstars destroyed Columbus 7-3. They were led by the Tkachuk brothers, with Brady Tkachuk scoring a hat trick, his first goals as a Panther, while Matthew Tkachuk dished five assists. Matthew was off to a very good start, while Brady started woefully. I haven't seen anything to think the switch to Florida is going to bring a drastic change to Brady's fantasy value. He does seem to be shooting the puck a bit less, mostly cutting up the hopeless, bad angle shots. His spot on the top power play unit is locked in as long as Barkov is out, so for now, enjoy the production that you're getting. Let's take a look at what else happened on Tuesday night:
You can do all of the right things building your fantasy team, but sometimes injuries torpedo the work that you've done. In the second week of the season, we've lost a superstar for the season. Igor Shesterkin suffered a horrible injury on Friday night against the Capitals, with the Rangers announcing that he's out for the season. It's just brutal for Igor and the Rangers, who were off to a great start. So what should his fantasy owners do in order to try and salvage their goaltending? We know the options aren't going to be good off the waiver wire, and it's only worse if you're in a situation like me, where in a dynasty, I've had Igor and Hellebuyck for a long time. My first priority was to grab Dylan Garand, and I'd advise the same for everyone. Garand is a solid prospect in his own right, and he's played admirably so far. Garand had a shutout in his first game, allowed one goal on 12 shots in relief of Igor, and then saved 19 of 21 shots in the 6-2 win against the Canucks on Sunday. The Rangers are playing great defensively, so he would the first guy I target off the wire. If you have IR spots, you could stash Joonas Korpisalo, who will be out for another month, but the Rangers paid big money for some reason to sign him this summer. There's always the possibility of a trade, but for now, I suspect that they'll see what Garand can do before making any big move. If you missed the boat on Garand, then you could roll the dice on Fowler, Levi, or maybe someone who was dropped already. Don't forget that goalies are voodoo, so anything can change quickly. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
The Golden Knights have played a lot of poor teams, especially defensively, to open the season, but you still have to take care of business. Right now, they are scoring a ton of goals, and are being led by their franchise center. Jack Eichel scored a goal and three assists with two shots in their victory over the Kraken on Tuesday, before scoring a goal and an assist with six shots against the Maple Leafs on Thursday. He has twelve points in five games so far, playing as well as anybody in the league. Life seems to be good for Eichel under Ryan Craig. Props to Fungazi 2.0 and Surfer Dude for picking Eichel for 3+ points on Tuesday. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
It was a very difficult start to open the season for the Ducks, opening at Vegas before hosting the Panthers. Here we are on Sunday night with the Ducks winning both games. They stormed out to a 4-0 lead against Vegas, holding on to win 4-3, before beatong the Panthers 3-2 in overtime. Leading the charge? The man who broke the NHL pay scale this offseason, Leo Carlsson. Carlsson had a goal and an assist against the Golden Knights before dishing three assists against Florida. Last season, Carlsson started the year with 34 points in his first 25 games before injury derailed him. If he can stay healthy and play to his potential, the 21 year old has a chance to reach 100 points. I had him ranked just outside the top 50 overall because we saw that he could be a fringe top 100 guy for an extended period, but I'd bet on him being inside the top 50 come the end of the season. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Instead of the usual daily notes to open the season, I'm going to give one major takeaway I have from the ten games that I watched extended parts of over the last two days. Sorry, Seattle and Calgary, you did not make the cut on one of my TVs. Kudos to Seattle for a big early win though, and they will be covered on Monday with every other team. We had a little bit of everything over these ten games, so let's get right to it!
Somehow, the season starts tomorrow already! I've gone through all of my rankings, and I hope that your drafts went well. As is tradition in these parts, my last post before the season starts is about ten bold predictions that I have for this season. They're almost always fantasy focused, and again, these are meant to be bold. I'm not talking about something that is 50/50 to happen, or even remotely close. I'm talking bold enough that if I hit three of these, I'll be very happy. Last season, I had some incredible whiffs, such as top 15 defenseman Morgan Rielly, but also hit on Jet Greaves being a top twelve goalie, and Caufield scoring 45+ goals. Here's to hoping the misses are at least somewhat close, and we hit a few of these. And without further adieu, my ten bold predictions!
And we're finally reached the end of my rankings with my Top 200 list. I will have my ten bold predictions on Monday before the season starts on Tuesday. If you have any specific questions, let me know in the comments section. And with that, the top 200!
My thoughts over the years on goaltending haven't changed, so I'm going to use a similar introduction that I've used in the past.
We’re onto the last position in my rankings, the netminders. Goalies make a huge difference in fantasy hockey, but they also have the most variability from year to year. There’s only a handful of goalies that we can consistently count on every season to finish in the top ten, and that floor is why they are ranked as high as they are. Because of their unpredictability, I’m very unlikely to take a goalie in the first four rounds, especially in head to head leagues. Even if your league reaches for goalies early, don’t panic. Last season, I was extremely high on Greaves and was able to get him as my G3 everywhere. He finished as the #7 goalie overall. I had Blackwood as G5 and with his early injury, suggested partnering him with Wedgewood, who hilariously ended up as the #1 goalie. Meanwhile, top ranked goalies such as Hellebuyck and Bobrovsky massively disappointed, and they were far from the only ones. Patience is key for drafting goalies. I’m going to separate all of the goalies into tiers, so let’s get to it!
If you missed the Top 20 post, you can check that out here. The plan is for my goaltending post to come out on Monday, with my Top 200 post coming out in the middle of next week so you have it for your drafts next weekend. That said, between all of the individual posts, you should be able to put it together and get close to a Top 200. If you want to get some early goaltending thoughts, you can look at MarmosDad's thoughts here. And with that, let's get to the Top 40!
We move onto blueliners now, starting with the top 20 defenseman for fantasy hockey. I'd argue this is the best overall group of defensemen since I've been writing for Razzball over a decade ago. This is surely going to be a long post, so let's get to it!
We wrap up my forward rankings with the rest of the Top 100. If you missed the Top 80, you can find that here. My plan is to start the defensemen rankings this week, if not go through all of the top 40. I will try to get through goaltending and all of my Top 200 by the middle of next week. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below.
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