Jeff Carter has been a top 100 fantasy player for almost ten years running. His high floor of 25 goals and 30 assists with great shots made him a staple of the early rounds. That said, I don’t think anyone saw this type of upside from him at 32 years old. Carter had one of the best games of this season with two goals, two assists, four shots and two PIM in the 6-3 win over the Panthers on Thursday. This puts him one goal off the league lead and into the top ten in points. Carter is playing like a top 20 player and I see no reason for that to drastically slow down for the rest of the season. Sure, his shooting percentage will probably drop, but his workload is conducive to top end production. Next season, I’m not sure he’ll even be in my top 50 but the stability shall remain. Here’s what else happened the last two nights:
Duncan Keith – Two assists with four shots. Keith’s assists are pushing a career high rate, I just wish the other numbers were strong.
Richard Panik – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Meh, I don’t even want to stream him right now.
Jonathan Toews – Goal and two assists with five shots. Toews has been better lately to the point where he’s a clear hold. It won’t set the world on fire but it’s solid.
Nino Niederreiter – Two assists with three shots. Clear as day hold now with 40 points (17+23) while being +22.
Zach Parise – Goal on six shots. I’ve had some questions in the comments about Parise’s status lately. The shot volume is too good to cut bait since the other categories are decent enough.
Tomas Hertl – Two assists with four shots. He’s been solid since his return from injury. If you have the room to hold someone for upside, I would go with Hertl.
David Backes – Goal and two assists with seven shots. He played a decent amount of the game on the top line which would be a huge boost to his value. At the moment, his value comes down to whether or not you need the penalty minutes.
Patrice Bergeron – Goal and three assists with two shots. If you had any hesitation as to whether or not Bergeron was back, this should eliminate that pause.
Brad Marchand – Goal and an assist with two shots. Nothing can slow him down outside of a long overdue suspension.
David Pastrnak – Two goals on five shots. He swapped with Backes but stayed on the first power play unit where he scored both goals. I’m not worried about Pastrnak regardless.
Hampus Lindholm – Two assists with three shots. There’s upside for Lindholm to be owned in all leagues but for now, leave on the waiver wire outside of 16’ers or deeper.
Corey Perry – Two goals and an assist with four shots. He broke out of his goal slump in a big way; the Sabres had no answer for him. Scorey Perry is still a clear hold but I expect to be down on him going into next season.
Rickard Rakell – Goal and an assist with three shots. Rakell slowed down after his incredible start but he’s still at 22 goals in 45 games. You know what to do.
Ryan O’Reilly – Assist with two shots and four PIM. Everyone on the Sabres top unit had a point. Anyways, remember this game because it’s a cold day in hell when RoR gets two penalty minutes, let alone four.
P.K. Subban – Two assists with four shots. He’s been a disappointment but the upside is still there for a huge second half.
Kevin Hayes – Three assists with a shot. He’s already surpassed last season’s point total in 30 less games. If he can get the shot rate up, then I’m all in on him long term. At his current levels, it’s fringe top 100 for next year.
J.T. Miller – Two goals on three shots. Miller has been incredible; this is his fourth straight multi-point game. It’s similar to Hayes, just a tier higher.
Thomas Greiss – 34 saves on 35 shots in the 3-1 win over the Flyers. Man, this was a good spot for the Flyers but Greiss was a brick wall. Keep rolling him regardless of matchup.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Assist with a shot playing 22 minutes. Hopefully he’s not scratched anymore. If someone cut him in your league and you want to gamble on the upside, go right ahead. The power play points and assists should be good at the least.
Andreas Athanasiou – Two goals. Keep streaming him in most matchups.
Thomas Vanek – Two assists. Man, what a season for TV. I’m still hoping he moves at the deadline to a real contender. Anyways, as a huge fan of him, I’d love to see him back in Buffalo as an offseason signing to play in the top six here.
Nicklas Backstrom – Goal and two assists with four PIM. The shots are really drying up but nobody can complain with Backs sitting over a point per game.
John Carlson – Goal and an assist with five shots. I had high hopes for Carlson this season but it looks like he’ll finish as a #2.
Marcus Johansson – Goal and an assist with two shots. Still firmly on the fence.
T.J. Oshie – Two goals and an assist. What an excellent six category line from Oshie right now. He’ll be closer to the top 50 than 100th next season. He is shooting an absurd percentage but the extra penalty minutes and great plus-minus for the 4th year running eliminates real downside.
Ryan Miller – 33 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Blue Jackets. He gave up ten goals in his previous two starts showing the roller coaster Miller is on. Overall, he’s been solid leading to a nice save percentage but Vancouver’s deficiencies are hurting his goals against average.
Daniel Sedin – Goal and an assist with three shots. Brother Henrik Sedin also had two points. Both of them are on the fringe to me and it depends on team build. I’d lean towards leaving both on the waiver wire which feels wrong to say.
Jamie Benn – Goal on three shots with five PIM. We’re seeing top five fantasy pick Jamie Benn lately.
Tyler Seguin – Eight shots on goal. Same as Benn; 17 shots in 2 games is absurd. A huge game is in the cards very soon.
Chris Kelly – Goal. Kelly scored an absolute beauty. And by absolute beauty, I mean the following:
Own goal by the #Stars pic.twitter.com/cWHvzdotQS
— Luke Adelman (@LukeAdelmanNHL) February 10, 2017
Dion Phaneuf – Goal on two shots with seven PIM. Like many forwards but few defensemen, his value comes from the PIM.
Mike Condon – 31 saves on 33 shots in the 3-2 win over the Stars. His run as the #1 is approaching an end so try to set up a plan for going forward.
Jake Allen – 31 saves on 32 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Maple Leafs. It’s amazing how much better the Blues are when they get good goaltending. Who knew? Anyways, stretches like this are why we held Allen. Keep your fingers crossed.
Dustin Brown – Goal and an assist. He keeps having good games at random but I refuse to entertain even streaming him outside of hits leagues.
Tanner Pearson – Goal and two assists with four shots. We talked about Pearson last week on the podcast. I wouldn’t hold him anymore but I’d stream him in all matchups.
Jonathan Huberdeau – Assist with two shots. If for some reason he’s still sitting on waivers in your league, use your waiver priority to claim him.
Jussi Jokinen – Goal and an assist with two PIM. It’ll take a few more strong games to put Jokinen back in streaming status.
Matt Murray – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 4-1 win over the Avalanche. It almost feels disappointing that he allowed a goal to the Avs.
Patric Hornqvist – Two goals on seven shots with two PIM. If the PIM can get back up to his usual level, Hornqvist would be a six category player. The shot rate is such a massive boost on top of the normal contributions.
Phil Kessel – Goal and an assist with two shots. He keeps chugging along right along a point per game. Phil deserves some Primanti Bros!
Chris Kunitz – Goal on four shots. He’s up on the first line right now making him an elite streamer.
Justin Schultz – Two assists. Schultz was on the top power play unit in this game which allows him to maintain #1D upside for the rest of the season.
Gabriel Landeskog – Goal on eight shots. Three game point streak for the Kog. Whether or not you can stomach the plus-minus determines his status for your team.
Phillip Danault – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. He’s stayed on the first line despite Alex Galchenyuk‘s (goal, 2 SOG) return keeping Danault as an elite streamer.
Andrei Markov – Goal and an assist with two shots. Markov is the poster boy of “assist’s ain’t got no face.”
Max Pacioretty – Two goals and two assists with ten shots on goal. If I started writing later tonight, I would have led off with Patches but I wrote about Carter before Patches finished off his incredible performance. Given how poorly he started the year, it’s amazing he’s only three goals off the league lead. I’ll be sure to talk about him on the podcast that will come out this afternoon.
Jeff Petry – Two assists with a shot. Petry is on the fence for me right now. With Markov back, his opportunity has dried up. It’s decent enough across the board that you can hold it but I have no problem cutting bait either.
Max Domi – Goal and an assist with three shots. Domi could make a big difference down the stretch. His injury this season has no impact on his long term upside either.
Christian Dvorak – Two goals on four shots. I can see Dvorak being a nice late round lottery ticket next season who could be a regular streamer. Not enough there at the moment for this season though.
Alex Goligoski – Goal and an assist with three shots. What a colossal disappointment he’s been. Despite four points in his last three games, hard pass.
Friday’s Streamers – There are only two games on the slate limiting options. This is a good night to just go with the highest owned players who are available in your league. A guy like Jason Pominville is now about 20%, my usual threshold, but should still be available. I do like Andrew Copp quite a bit since he’s remained in the top six. Vladislav Namestnikov remains on the first line as well but it’s not the best spot. That said, options are few and far between today.
That’s all for now guys. As mentioned above, we will have a podcast coming out this afternoon. Expect that to be out by noon eastern. I’ll be back with my next set of daily notes on Monday. As always, feel free to ask any questions or comments below. I’ll be unavailable from 12 until 2 or 3 but I’ll be sure to answer anything before I leave and everything once I get back. I hope everyone has a great weekend, thanks for reading!
