My bold prediction of Tyson Barrie scoring 50 points this season was looking absolutely horrible through the first two weeks. After the past week, there’s some hope. Barrie had two assists with five shots on Tuesday night against the Senators. That gives him seven points in the last four games and it hasn’t been dominated by power play points. The good news is that the Oilers have two more games coming up against the Senators early next week, but either way, I’m expecting Barrie to keep playing well and push towards being the top 10 defenseman I projected. If somebody panicked early, including yourself since I assume most of the readers own Barrie, grab Barrie immediately. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Monday’s Games:
Jeff Petry – Two goals and an assist with four shots. What an unbelievable start from Petry. Thirteen points in ten games!
Artturi Lehkonen – Goal and an assist with three shots. His role has diminished with the addition of depth throughout their lineup so I’m not looking to use Lehkonen anywhere.
Nick Suzuki – Goal and an assist. Suzuki has a point in nine out of ten games. The shot rate isn’t great, but can’t complain about this start from Suzuki.
Artemi Panarin – Goal and two assists with two shots. Panarin has been great which comes as no surprise.
Igor Shesterkin – 25 saves on 26 shots in the 3-1 win over the Penguins. I’m really confused as to why Quinn isn’t starting Igor more. Hopefully this game gets him down that path because Shesterkin is elite.
Steven Stamkos – Goal and an assist with three shots. Health is the only thing that could stop Stamkos from being an elite player. He’s been great across the board in the early going.
Yanni Gourde – Two goals. I really like Gourde as a player, but he should be left for deep leagues. The lack of power play time stops me from using him in standard leagues with the possible exception of going against Detroit.
David Pastrnak – Two goals on seven shots. Suffice to say that Pasta is back.
Brad Marchand – Goal and an assist with three shots. The shot rate being around three per game gives Marchand a real chance to push towards being a top five player. That doesn’t surprise me at all considering that’s where I ranked him, but a lot of people were getting him in the second round which is simply bonkers.
Brandon Carlo – Goal and an assist with two shots. Carlo is right there with Brodin as a player who is great in real life but does little in fantasy. It’s even more true for Carlo who doesn’t play the power play at all.
Jakub Vrana – Two assists with three shots. Vrana has been solid so far, although the shots need to come up to be a top 100 player.
Elias Lindholm – Two assists with two shots. Lindholm has a point in every game but one so far. He could play at a career high pace in points per game in that division.
Blake Wheeler – Three assists with a shot. The top line was outstanding once against with Mark Scheifele scoring a goal and an assist with three shots while Kyle Connor scored twice on six shots. They’re playing as well as any line in the league right now.
Tuesday’s Games
Nathan MacKinnon – Week to week with a lower body injury. Brutal turn of events for the Avs who once again are getting killed by the injury bug. J.T. Compher is getting first crack on the top line making him a solid streamer.
Philipp Grubauer – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 2-1 win over the Wild. I have a lot of Grubauer shares this year as he kept falling in drafts for no reason. Sure, this workload will decrease once Francouz comes back, but Grubauer should be a #1 all season.
Quinn Hughes – Three assists with four shots. In thirteen games, he has thirteen assists. The shots are starting to come in now too, but Hughes is looking like the best AAGNOF of them all.
Tyler Toffoli – Two goals and an assist with five shots. It’s incredible how much Toffoli is dominating his old team. Revenge games through and through! Toffoli has nine goals already and needs to be held everywhere.
Jeff Petry – Goal and an assist. It doesn’t stop!
Josh Anderson – Two goals on four shots with two PIM. Anderson looks like the player he was two seasons ago in Columbus. He also needs to be held everywhere.
Nick Suzuki – Two assists. All your assists are belong to Suzuki!
Joe Pavelski – Two goals and two assists with five shots. This start by the top Dallas players is making me look really bad. I simply did not see this coming. Pavelski has 14 points in 7 games already! Absolutely bonkers.
Jamie Benn – Goal and two assists with two shots. I don’t think Benn had three points in a game once last season. He looked completely shot and now he’s on a tear. Unbelievable.
Alex Radulov – Goal and an assist. The shot rate isn’t great, but Radulov looks back on track.
John Klingberg – Two assists with two shots. Klingberg looks like he did in the playoffs which is to say that he’s dominating games on a regular basis.
Mikhail Grigorenko – Goal and an assist. He’s not getting many minutes at the moment so leave him on the waiver wire.
Jordan Staal – Two assists. Staal is back to being a decent streamer while he’s playing with Svechnikov.
Warren Foegele – Goal and an assist. I’d use him as a streamer in deep leagues as he’s the third member of the line with Staal and Svech.
Dominik Kubalik – Two assists with three shots. The second line right now has Kubalik with Alex DeBrincat (two assists, 4 SOG) and Dylan Strome (goal). This is a big upgrade for Kubalik to where he’s an auto hold in all formats.
Phil Kessel – Two assists with four shots and two PIM. Kessel is right on the fringe for me and it comes down to personal preference.
Nick Schmaltz – Goal and an assist with two shots. It’s very encouraging that Schmaltz is around 2.5 per game as he’s usually under 1.5. If that upgrade is real, Schmaltz is an elite streamer or possibly a hold, so it’s enough to keep monitoring.
Christian Dvorak – Two goals on five shots playing over 20 minutes. He’s right at a point per game and seems to be locked into playing the most minutes for Tocchet. Like the two guys before him, Dvorak is right on the fringe, and I have a really hard time ordering them. I guess I prefer Dvorak because of the minutes? Super close between the three.
Colton Parayko – Two assists with three shots. Parayko is worth holding in all formats because he’s hitting all of the categories.
Sammy Blais – Two assists with a shot. Blais isn’t playing enough minutes to be fantasy relevant.
Vince Dunn – Goal and an assist with two shots. Dunn asked for a trade which, more than likely, would boost his fantasy value. For now, I’d leave him on the waiver wire in 12’ers.
Jordan Kyrou – Two assists with a shot. The minutes are starting to slowly climb because Kyrou has played so well. He needs to be held right now as Kyrou is the hottest of hot schmotatos.
Matthew Tkachuk – Two goals on four shots with two PIM playing over 24 minutes. No surprise that Tkachuk is crushing across the board. There’s a real chance that he’s a top 20 player this season.
Connor McDavid – Two assists with a shot. It shows how good McDavid is that this game feels disappointing.
Jesse Puljujarvi – Two goals on three shots. He’s playing with McDavid which makes Puljujarvi a solid streamer by default, but I don’t have him in the elite tier yet. It would probably take him getting the fifth PP spot for that to change, but perhaps he catches a heater at even strength.
Nicolas Deslauriers – Goal and an assist with five PIM. A Gordie Howe hat trick! It’s stunning that Deslauries already has three goals which sounds ridiculous, but he’s not a scorer.
David Backes – Goal on eight shots. Props to Backes to getting back into the NHL and performing. One of my favorites from when he was at his peak on the USA Olympic team.
John Gibson – 20 saves on 21 shots in the 3-1 win over the Kings. Nice for Gibson to get back on track after two rough starts in a row. There’s four games with Vegas this month which probably will be rough, but the rest of his games should be very good on the whole.
Three Point Challenge:
Feel free to make a pick in the comments section below for a player to get three points on Thursday night. It can’t be anyone in the Top 10 in points. From now, we will use last season’s top 10, so that means no Draisaitl, McDavid, Panarin, Pastrnak, MacKinnon, Marchand, Kucherov, P. Kane, Matthews, Huberdeau, or Eichel. I’ll take Mitch Marner against the Canucks.
That’s all for now guys. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action from the next two nights. Thanks for reading, take care!
