Towards the 2020 NHL trade deadline, the Maple Leafs acquired Campbell and Clifford for the Kings for two draft picks and a former undrafted player who looked like a AAAA player. He was coming off a big season for the Marlies, but was struggling at the NHL level. That player was Trevor Moore. Now, he’s a top six player on one of the best teams in the league. Moore scored two goals on five shots against the Coyotes on Monday. That brings him up to 9+6 on the season with a shot rate pushing towards three per game. Moore is certainly on the fringe, but right now, I’m leaning towards holding. The big reason is that Kevin Fiala moved onto a line with Moore and Phillip Danault (1+1). Moore and Danault are both good play drivers, but Fiala is right there with them with an elite skill set. Albeit in a short sample, this line is generating opportunities at a rate as high as any in the league. They also get the bonus of going against weaker competition because of the Kopitar line. While this start looks like an outlier based on Moore’s previous stats, the underlying numbers suggest that he should continue to produce. Let’s take a look at what else happened Monday night:
Connor McDavid – Two goals on three shots. Only for McDavid would a point per game start be a huge disappointment. Expect him to take off sooner than later.
Carter Verhaeghe – Goal and an assist with four shots. I’m all in on Verhaeghe now that he’s on PP1.
Kevin Stenlund – Goal and two assists with three shots and two PIM. Stenlund has been fine in a depth role, but there’s nothing here for fantasy.
Niko Mikkola – Two goals on three shots. There’s some deep league value in the blocks and stumbling into enough points being on Florida, but that’s about it.
David Pastrnak – Goal and an assist with eight shots and two PIM. Pasta has managed to put up even better numbers than last season.
Steven Stamkos – Goal and an assist with five shots, as did Brandon Hagel. The shot rate is up quite a bit lately for Stammer, which is the key for him to being the player we’re accustomed to. Hagel’s shown that this is no fluke and needs to be held everywhere.
Cale Makar – Three assists with a shot. That’s three consecutive games with three assists for Makar. The goals are lower than we expected, but he’s up to 23 assists in 17 games. He’s simply incredible.
Nathan MacKinnon – Two assists with seven shots. MacKinnon has had horrible shooting luck so far, so it should get even better sooner than later.
Valeri Nichushkin – Goal and an assist with four shots. Big Val is playing massive minutes with MacKinnon since Lehkonen was injured, and he’s delivering on a nightly basis.
Filip Forsberg – Two goals on six shots. Forsberg is back to the level he was at two seasons ago. He has 9+12 already with over four shots per game. Just stay healthy!
Gustav Nyquist – Two assists with two shots and two PIM. He’s on the first line and first PP unit right now, but Nyquist doesn’t contribute much besides assists. He’s a solid streamer if that’s what you’re looking for.
Jacob Trouba – Two assists with four shots. The non-scoring categories are all elite, it’s just tough to expect much from Trouba offensively, even with Fox out of the lineup.
Roope Hintz – Goal and two assists with three shots. It feels like Hintz has underperformed, but he’s sitting at a point per game now. Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist with two shots as he’s in the same boat as Hintz. The change was that Jamie Benn moved to the first line and he scored a goal on three shots. It’s a big bump for Benn, who is on the fringe and could easily be a hold if the shot rate goes up.
Tyler Seguin – Goal and an assist with six shots. The Seguin line has quietly been dominant lately. Mason Marchment had a goal and an assist with three shots, while Matt Duchene also scored. Seguin is worth holding while he’s a hot schmotato, as is Duchene. Marchment is a solid streamer.
Pheonix Copley – 30 saves on 31 shots in the 4-1 win over the Coyotes. Copley has been awful in every game before this one. Talbot has been outstanding, so I don’t expect Copley to play much. Stream him at your own risk.
Rasmus Andersson – Goal and two assists with six shots. Andersson is extremely safe as a #3 for fantasy.
Jonathan Huberdeau – Goal and an assist. Huberdeau is starting to show signs of bouncing back. I have him as an elite streamer who could easily turn into a hold again.
Vince Dunn – Goal and an assist with four shots. Dunn has proven that last season wasn’t a fluke. He’s giving up a lot more goals this season, but the points are fantastic.
Thatcher Demko – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 3-1 win over the Sharks. Demko has been as good as any goalie in the league to this point. It’s nice to see him back on his game after a horrible year last season.
Quinn Hughes – Goal and an assist with three shots. The first player in the league to 30 points. Absolutely insane.
Three Point Challenge: We will do Wednesday’s games this week because of the schedule. For the last time, we will use last season’s top 10. That means you can’t select McDavid, Draisaitl, Kucherov, Pastrnak, MacKinnon, Robertson, M. Tkachuk, Rantanen, RNH, or Pettersson. Last Thursday, I hit on Stutzle, giving me a second correct pick to tie Jeff. I’ll go with Makar against the Canucks going for his fourth three point game in a row.
That’s all for now. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. With the different schedule this week (no games on Tuesday or Thursday), I’ll be back on Monday with a updated hold/stream list. Thanks for reading, take care!
