Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. After being initially ruled out for three weeks, Brock Boeser was subsequently ruled out for eight weeks, and possibly the season. For our purposes, eight weeks takes us right up until the playoffs, so you can cut Boeser in all redrafts. To make up for his absence, the Canucks acquired Tyler Toffoli for Tyler Madden, Tim Schaller, and a second round pick. Early indications are that Toffoli is going to slide right onto a line with Pettersson and Miller. Is that better than with Kopitar? I would say so, especially because the Vancouver power play is incredibly good and Toffoli should slide right onto the first unit. The Canucks play right away on Wednesday, so I’m looking to stream Toffoli tonight and possibly hold him if things go well. For the Kings, this is a very good return for a rental. Schaller is depth filler, but Madden safely projects as a second line center with plenty of offensive ability, unlike his father, the other John Madden. He’s currently hurt at Northeastern, but my expectation is that Madden is in the NHL by the start of the 2021-22 season and eventually becomes a pretty valuable fantasy asset. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Mikko Rantanen – Left the game against Tampa with an upper body injury. Early reports were a broken collarbone, but that was contradicted on Tuesday. We should get some news on Wednesday, but don’t expect Rantanen back for at least a few weeks. Andre Burakovsky becomes a slam dunk hold now instead of a fringe one, while Joonas Donskoi gets bumped back up to a strong to elite streamer.
Gabriel Landeskog – Two assists with three shots playing over 24 minutes. I’m expecting The Kog to go on a bit of a run as the Avs give him a big workload again with Rantanen down.
Nathan MacKinnon – Goal and an assist with five shots playing over 27 minutes. I know it was an overtime game, but good lord, 27:13! MacKinnon has been remarkable.
Philipp Grubauer – Day to day but “could miss some time.” If you need goaltending help, grab Pavel Francouz.
Jakob Silfverberg – Goal and an assist with two shots. In an ugly season for the Ducks, Silfverberg has been quite good offensively. He’s a middling streamer and it’s a shame that the Ducks didn’t give him more of a chance offensively when they were a better team.
Andrew Mangiapane – Hat trick and an assist with two PIM. I think he’s going to stick on the second line for a bit longer. That’s ten points in the last ten games, but he doesn’t contribute much in the secondary stats. Even with this run, he’s a bottom end streamer.
Matthew Tkachuk – Goal and an assist with eight shots. Seven game point streak for Tkachuk who really got his shot rate up this year to a borderline elite level. The PIM are coming back in full force so he’s shaping up to be a top 50 player with ease once again.
Aaron Ekblad – Two assists with two shots. He’s smashed his previous career high in assists already but the goals have dropped, mostly due to bad luck. He looks to have taken a step forward under Quenneville.
Brent Burns – Two assists with five shots. With Erik Karlsson ruled out for the season and the Sharks forward depth being decimated, Burns could get back to his big shot volume. The plus-minus will surely be bad, but I now have some hope that Burns finishes strong.
Antti Raanta – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 2-1 win over the Islanders. Raanta has been very good with Kuemper down. Tocchet’s system is right up there with the best for goalies with Trotz and Boudreau (the Wild goalies just suck now). Who knows how long it’s going to last with Kuemper’s return on the horizon, but Raanta needs to be held everywhere.
T.J. Oshie – Two goals, both assisted by Jakub Vrana. The Capitals establishing an elite second line with these two and Kuznetsov gives them a better chance at the Cup than I expected this season. Both are easy holds.
Brandon Montour – Two goals and an assist. Montour was buzzing in the first period and continued strong play throughout. That said, he’s still only a deep league option barring a trade or injury.
Victor Olofsson – Goal and an assist with six shots. He looks damn good right now and should be a constant threat the rest of the season.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Two goals and two assists with five shots. The Senators ran wild on the Sabres with Pageau leading the charge. I always liked the player, but didn’t think he had this kind of offense in him. He’s on the fringe for now. His value is probably highest if he stays in Ottawa, but that could change in the perfect situation.
Artem Anisimov – Two goals on five shots. Tyler Ennis and Mike Reilly had two assists each. Bunching these guys together because they have two things in common: they play on Ottawa and they’re fantasy irrelevant.
Anthony Duclair – Goal and an assist. It was an empty netter, but Duclair had to be relieved as it was his first goal in 22 games. He’s still a solid streamer, but the only auto hold on their team right now is Brady Tkachuk (two assists, five shots).
Drake Batherson – Goal and an assist with two shots. Big fan of Batherson as a prospect. My hope is that he gets more of a chance down the stretch. He’s a name to monitor because he can turn into an elite streamer for this season.
Carter Hart – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 5-1 win over the Blue Jackets. His only bad games over the last six weeks were against the Lightning and Bruins. We’re starting to see Hart put it together. It’s not going to be smooth, but for a 21 year old, it’s about all we can hope for.
Travis Konecny – Goal and two assists. Konecny was inching back towards the fringe, but with seven points in his last six games, he’s a firm hold again.
Claude Giroux – Two assists with a shot. Keep asking for a heater and eventually it will happen.
Jakub Voracek – Goal and an assist. Voracek’s value still comes down to team needs. The shot rate and PIM have dried up over the years to this point, with the shot rate taking a massive decline. However, I still barely lean hold.
Joel Farabee – Two assists. Big fan of Farabee’s game, but in redrafts he belongs on the waiver wire. In dynasties, I see a top six forward long term who could end up being an easy hold.
Sidney Crosby – Goal and three assists with three shots. Crosby dominated this game from the get go with Evgeni Malkin a late scratch due to illness. He’s shown zero signs of slowing down.
Bryan Rust – Goal and two assists with two shots and four PIM. Rust wasn’t hurt by Malkin’s absence. He’s one of the biggest breakouts of this season and he’s getting very little discussion, it’s somewhat bizarre.
Jordan Weal – Two assists. And there’s your annual Weal update!
Nick Suzuki – Goal and an assist with three shots. Suzuki has played his way into being an elite streamer already. He’s been developing nicely and been consistent over the last six weeks, especially for a 20 year old. Obviously trading Patches hurt, but Suzuki is looking like a great return.
Andreas Athanasiou – Two goals on four shots. Last season’s 30 goals for Athanasiou feels like an eternity ago. I can’t bring myself to use him again yet.
Anthony Mantha – Two assists, as did Dylan Larkin. It’s so hard to say what to expect from these two down the stretch given how bad Detroit is, but it certainly could be damn good if they get 22 minutes or more. If I owned either, I would probably be stubborn and keep holding hoping for the best.
Jordan Binnington – 17 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Devils. Doesn’t get any easier for Binnington, who needed an easy layup after a rough stretch of games. He should be fine the rest of the way.
Ivan Barbashev – Two goals on four shots. I like the player, but not for fantasy.
Petr Mrazek – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 4-1 win over the Predators. I was really hoping for better from Mrazek this season, but I’m still holding because the wins have been good.
Justin Williams – Two assists with two shots. Maybe his workload gets increased down the stretch run, but for now they appear to be limiting Williams to 13-14 minutes most nights. It’s hard to stream a guy playing that little, so he’s bottom end for now.
Dustin Brown – Two goals with two PIM. Both were assisted by Anze Kopitar, which should come as zero surprise. Brown has regressed this season which should also come as zero surprise. I have little interest in streaming him.
Blake Wheeler – Two goals and an assist with five shots. There were some interesting line changes that happened in Winnipeg Tuesday. Wheeler went back to the wing with Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele. That line dominated the Kings as Ehlers had a goal and two assists with six shots, while Scheifele had two assists with three shots. Jack Roslovic centered Patrik Laine. Roslovic dished two assists while Laine had a goal and an assist with two shots. Roslovic is getting a bump up to a middling streamer as long as this sticks, while the other four are all elite options.
Three Point Challenge: Let’s do it for Thursday’s games this week per usual. As a reminder, you can’t take a player in the top 10 in the league in points. I’ll take Scheifele against the Senators.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action from the next two nights. As a reminder, I will have a live trade deadline post on Monday updating everyone on the trade deadline. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
