I generally don’t like to lead posts about obvious must-holds, but a five point game deserves recognition. Brayden Point went off on Tuesday night scoring a goal and dishing four assists. That brings him to a whopping 7+7 in 11 games. He’s on the lethal top power play unit meaning the 22 year old looks like he can take another jump from last season’s breakout. The shot rate will determine just how good Point will be for fantasy, but he looks the part of a borderline top 50 guy for the foreseeable future. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Auston Matthews – Out at least four weeks with a shoulder injury. Tough blow for Matthews; put him on injured reserve and hope that there are no setbacks.
Mike Smith – 24 saves on 25 shots in the 2-1 OT win over Toronto. He’s been dreadful to start the season to the point that I see Smith as a desperate for starts guy.
Elias Lindholm – Goal and two assists with ten shots over two games. Lindholm has looked terrific on Calgary’s first line showing why he was a former fifth overall pick. Somehow he’s still available in over 50% of leagues, so grab him immediately if you can.
Sean Monahan – Goal and three assists with seven shots over two games. Come the end of the year, we know what Monahan is going to give us.
David Rittich – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 2-1 OT win over Buffalo. He’s been much better than Smith, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Rittich starts getting more games.
Elias Pettersson – Two goals on three shots. The only thing that has slowed down Pettersson is a cheap shot from Matheson. Of course there’s some regression coming, but Petterson has all of the makings of a future superstar.
Carter Hutton – 36 saves on 38 shots getting the OT loss. I was at this game, and Hutton was nothing short of spectacular. He was less than a minute from a shutout and instead took the loss. I expect Hutton to have better numbers than he did in the early going and should be owned in almost all formats. This is the early lead for save of the year:
Get paddled says @CarterHutton. #CGYvsBUF pic.twitter.com/WWq3quH5g2
— NHL (@NHL) October 31, 2018
Patrice Bergeron – Three shots and three assists, two of which came on Brad Marchand goals and the other from David Pastrnak. You can’t even contain these guys, you can only hope to limit the damage.
Matt Martin – Goal and an assist with two shots. The most shocking thing in the early going is that Martin has three goals on the season. The Isles should automatically win the game when that plug gets two points.
Jordan Eberle – Two goals on three shots, both from Mathew Barzal. I’m more encouraged by Barzal getting 3 SOG than the two assists, while Eberle is starting to show signs of life. I think he’s more elite streamer than hold right now.
Nick Leddy – Two assists with a shot. Hard pass. Three assists and eight SOG in 10 games is hot garbage.
Ryan Pulock – Two assists with a shot. I was hoping for a breakout from Pulock, but he’s started off slow. I dumped him for guys who started better than him, but I’d still monitor Pulock to see if he can build on these last two games.
Sidney Crosby – Goal and an assist with seven shots. Last week, I said that it felt like Crosby was about to go on a run where he had around 25 points in 15 games. Seems like that is happening; he has 9 in his past 4.
Jamie Oleksiak – Two assists with a shot. I don’t see this offense has sustainable, but Oleksiak is a clear hold in deep leagues that include hits and blocks. He’s going to stumble into enough points playing for the Pens.
Dylan Larkin – Two goals and an assist with seven shots and two PIM. I love it when I’m right! Larkin is up to a point per game with an elite shot rate.
Joonas Korpisalo – 4 saves on 7 shots in 13:02 before being pulled. Maybe Torts can now cut the bullshit and start rolling Bob like he should be?
Markus Hannikainen – Two assists with four shots. The one thing that I will say about Hannikainen is that I’m shocked I have wrote about him before. Nothing to see here.
Ben Bishop – 34 saves on 35 shots in the 4-1 win over the Canadiens. Very strong start to the season for Bishop. I’m buying Dallas stock and that includes Bishop.
Devin Shore – Goal and two assists. Shore has seven points in the past five games, but he also has 9 SOG in 11 games. Can’t trust someone who isn’t shooting.
Esa Lindell – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Lindell has turned into a nice player in real life, but he’s only a deep league option barring an injury to Klingberg or maybe Heiskanen.
Miles Wood – Goal and an assist with three shots. Nothing to see here.
All of the studs (plus Brayden Coburn) had 2+ points in their 8 goal explosion against the Devils. The highlights:
Ryan McDonagh – Goal and two assists with five shots. As long as Hedman is out, McDonagh is an elite option. Otherwise, leave him for deep leagues unless you need the quality plus-minus.
Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov each had three points. Both of them are extremely underpriced in DFS because of their slow start. They were only 11-12% owned in the big DFS tournaments Tuesday, so take advantage of this opportunity.
Juuse Saros – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 4-1 win over Vegas. This is more of what I expected from Saros when he took over. Don’t panic if you own him.
Ryan Hartman – Two goals on five shots. The minutes simply aren’t there right now for Hartman to be used. It’ll take a lineup shakeup, either with the lines or an injury, for Hartman to be held.
Kevin Fiala – Two assists. Extremely disappointing start to the season for Fiala. I’d still stream him, but he’s nowhere near a hold at the moment.
Roman Josi – Two assists with a shot. Very slow start for Josi by his standards, but I have next to zero concern.
Eric Staal – Goal and two assists with five shots and two PIM over two games. A few strong games has Staal back at a very strong level. Four goals in twelve games is more of the pace that I expect, so hopefully he can keep up the assists.
Ryan Suter – Goal and two assists with four shots and two PIM over two games. He’s shockingly at a point per game, so if you could sell high, I would. Suter will end up around 50 points, we know this, so there’s no problem in holding if nobody will buy high.
Nino Niederreiter – Two assists with four shots. I was a big Nino fan, but he’s lost his game over the past two seasons. Not even worth streaming anymore.
Mikael Granlund – Goal and an assist with two shots. Nine game point streak for Granlund; I just wish he would shoot the puck more.
Leon Draisaitl – Goal and an assist with four shots. Keep shooting Leon!
Antti Raanta – 25 saves on 26 shots in the 5-1 win over the Senators. Raanta is putting together a nice stretch of games. As mentioned on Monday, he has a chance to be a #1 goalie.
Alex Galchenyuk – Goal and an assist with two shots. Great start for Gally in the desert with four points in four games. He’s right on the edge of being a hold.
Claude Giroux – Two assists with four shots. Still above a point per game, still putting all of the shots on goal. It’s a beautiful thing.
Nolan Patrick – Goal and an assist. We’re starting to see flashes from Patrick on a more frequent basis, but he’s still a long way from holding.
Pontus Aberg – Two goals. As mentioned previously, I was quite impressed with Aberg in the 2017 playoffs and I’m glad to see him get a shot playing on Anaheim’s first line and PP. He should be added in all deep leagues immediately and makes for a great streamer in standard leagues while he’s a hot schmotato.
Chris Kreider – Two goals on four shots with two PIM. The top line for the Rangers killed the Sharks on Tuesday. There’s enough across the board that Kreider needs to be held.
Mats Zuccarello – Goal and an assist. The shots have been dreadful over the past few weeks but the points are so good that you kind of have to hold him for the time being.
Brent Burns – Goal and an assist with three shots. Brent Burns doing Brent Burns things!
Timo Meier – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Meier now has a five game goal streak and nine game point streak. Hopefully you read my Monday post and you grabbed Meier.
That’s all for now guys. There’s only one game tonight, so, uh, stream the best guys available from CHI and VAN. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments below. I’ll be back on Friday with my next set of notes. Thanks for reading, take care!
