With only one game on the slate on Monday, I’ll be completing my hold/stream list today. For the Central and West divisions, you can find that here. I’ll be back on Wednesday doing daily notes once again. Let’s get to the list!
NORTH DIVISION
CALGARY FLAMES
Hold: Gaudreau, Lindholm, Monahan, Tkachuk, Andersson, Giordano
Stream: Backlund, Dube
The big development in Calgary is that Rasmus Andersson is running the first power play with the big four forwards on the team. That makes Andersson a must-own in every format. Everything else is very straight forward.
EDMONTON OILERS
Hold: McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH, Yamamoto, Nurse, Barrie
Stream: None
My Tyson Barrie love has gone poorly to start, but I’m not giving up as long as he’s on the first power play unit. The Oilers have four games with Ottawa on the horizon which should help fix things. None of the secondary players like Dominik Kahun have done anything so I’m not looking to stream anyone on their team right now.
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Hold: Toffoli, Tatar, Suzuki, Anderson, Gallagher, Petry, Weber
Stream: Drouin, Danault, Romanov, Allen
Josh Anderson is playing like he did two seasons ago. With over three shots per game, he needs to be held right now. Jonathan Drouin has five shots in six games. The points should be there, but that’s enough of a drain to stream him instead of hold. Alexander Romanov has been a pleasant surprise and is shooting the puck a ton. If you need the shots, you could make the case for holding him. I like him a lot long term once his role increases.
OTTAWA SENATORS
Hold: Tkachuk, Batherson, Chabot
Stream: Norris, Paul, Tierney, Dadonov
First off, don’t use Matt Murray unless you’re desperate for starts. It’ll be better than the current 3.79/.880, but I’m not sure he crosses .900 in that division. I really like how Drake Batherson is playing and the shot rate is for real. He’s fringe, but I’m holding right now. Josh Norris has looked like he belonged on the first line, but I think he’s an elite streamer for now.
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Hold: Marner, Tavares, Nylander, Matthews, Rielly
Stream: Hyman, Kerfoot, Muzzin, Mikheyev, Vesey
The only debate here is Zach Hyman. He’s playing with Tavares and Nylander and is currently on the first power play unit which the team is balancing out two units. I prefer to stream him, but I could see him becoming a hold.
VANCOUVER CANUCKS
Hold: Pettersson, Boeser, Miller, Horvat, Hughes
Stream: Hoglander, Pearson, Virtanen, Schmidt, Edler, Myers
The Canucks have had an atrocious start to the season, especially defensively. I’m looking much hope for either goalie, but I’ll give them a little more time before cutting bait. Nate Schmidt has been terrible and is a big part of the team’s struggles. It could turn, but for now, I’m only holding their big five.
WINNIPEG JETS
Hold: Scheifele, Connor, Wheeler, Ehlers, Dubois, Morrissey, Pionk
Stream: Stastny, Copp
Pretty straight forward here. I’ve talked about Josh Morrissey a few times in recent daily notes posts, but to repeat, now he’s back on the first power play, he needs to be held.
EAST DIVISION
BOSTON BRUINS
Hold: Marchand, Bergeron, Pastrnak, Grzelcyk, McAvoy
Stream: Krejci, Ritchie, DeBrusk, Coyle, C. Smith, Halak
Cut and dry here. There’s a chance that David Pastrnak returns on Saturday, but if not, it should be early next week. For those of you in weekly lineup leagues, be sure to have Pastrnak in your lineup starting next week assuming there’s no setbacks.
BUFFALO SABRES
Hold: Eichel, Hall, Olofsson, Reinhart, Dahlin
Stream: Staal, Cozens, Skinner, Ristolainen
It’s been an awful start for Rasmus Dahlin, but I’m not cutting bait yet. For some reason, Krueger refuses to give Jeff Skinner time in the top six so he’s dropped some to streamer status. Rasmus Ristolainen is right on the fringe in standard 12’ers. Obviously he’s must own if hits are included.
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
Hold: Hughes, Palmieri, Wood, Hischier, Ty Smith
Stream: Sharangovich, Gusev, Subban
Ty Smith is one of the more interesting debates on the fringe. On one hand, he has six points in his first five games. On the other, he’s played under 12 minutes in two of the five games New Jersey has played. I’d really like to see him move up to the second pair and then he’d be an easy hold. I suppose the thought is Severson can carry Kulikov and Smith can carry Tennyson? Not really sure. Miles Wood is the primary shooter on his line and is getting first power play time. It may be a bit premature to call him a hold, but he’ll be the biggest beneficiary when Nico Hischier returns.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS
Hold: Barzal, Lee, Nelson, Pulock, Leddy, Dobson
Stream: Eberle, Beauvillier, Bailey
You can have a debate over five guys on this team for whether or not they should be streamers or holds. For now, I’m barely putting all three defensemen in the hold category and putting the first two forwards I have listed as streamers as, you guessed it, streamers. Ryan Pulock and Noah Dobson are both on the first PP unit while Nick Leddy is running the second. Pulock is the only one off to a slow start and I’m not particularly concerned. If you had Jordan Eberle as a hold, I’m not going to argue with it.
NEW YORK RANGERS
Hold: Panarin, Zibanejad, Buchnevich, Kreider, Fox, DeAngelo
Stream: Kakko, Chytil, Lafreniere, Trouba, Di Giuseppe
There’s a lot of disappointing starts in here. I’m giving Chris Kreider and Tony DeAngelo another week before cutting bait. I don’t own Alexis Lafreniere anywhere, but I’d consider pulling the plug already in a redraft. He did play almost 19 minutes yesterday so I can understand if you want to give him another week too. Pavel Buchnevich has been the big gainer playing almost 20 minutes per night.
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
Hold: Hayes, Konecny, Voracek, Giroux, Couturier, Provorov
Stream: JVR, Patrick, Farabee, Lindbolm, Gustafsson, Elliott
All of the holds are extremely obvious. I’m a bit worried about Ivan Provorov. I don’t own him anywhere, but if I did, I wouldn’t be close to cutting him yet. I just don’t see the big upside others do. I don’t see much of a case for holding any of the streamers. I guess Nolan Patrick would be my favorite of the bunch going forward. If not, it’s James van Riemsdyk, but the minutes aren’t good enough yet.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Hold: Crosby, Malkin, Guentzel, Rust, Letang
Stream: McCann, Kapanen, Zucker
Another bold prediction looks bad already as Evgeni Malkin has started off poorly. I’m not worried about him though, the track record is too long. however, Jason Zucker has been miserable and he’s already lost his spot on the second line. For now, he’s safe to drop.
WASHINGTON CAPITALS
Hold: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Oshie, Vrana, Wilson, Carlson
Stream: Schultz, Vanacek
Having watched five of their six games so far in entirety, I have to say I’m not buying this 3-0-3 start. They were thoroughly outplayed by the Sabres in three of their four games against them yet managed to go 3-0-1. Granted, they missed a bunch of top players in the last two, but even the second game against Buffalo and both Pens games were underwhelming. Zdeno Chara looks completely shot and I have a lot of questions about their depth. That said, for fantasy, it’s pretty clear cut. Hold the studs and stream Vitek Vanecek if you need the starts for now.
Three Point Challenge: Feel free to make a pick in the comments section below for a player to get three points on Monday 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. Give me Ryan Nugent-Hopkins against the Jets.
Tuesday Streamers:
Stastny, Hintz, Hyman
That’s all for now guys. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
