Kane Becomes 50th For 500

Patrick Kane hit the next milestone in his illustrious career on Thursday night, scoring two goals to reach the 500 goal mark for his career.  He became the fifth American and 50th player ever to score 500 goals.  Kane has been very good for the surprising Red Wings, totaling 8+18 in 30 games with an above average shot rate.  He’s firmly on the fringe, meaning whether or not you hold him comes down to team needs.  If anything, he’s been a bit unlucky with his shooting percentage, so there’s a bit more upside here.  Just don’t expect any more empty net goals, as the only reason he was on the ice with one in this game was to get him to 500.  Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:

Wednesday’s Games:

Casey DeSmith – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 4-1 win over the Capitals.  DeSmith is worth streaming in all matchups right now outside of Colorado.

Sam Steel – Goal and an assist.  Steel is getting a much bigger opportunity this season than he deserves, if we’re being honest.  Even with that, he’s only a bottom end streamer at best.

Jacob Fowler – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 4-1 win over the Flames.  Fowler has been pretty good, but he’s only had eight starts.  There’s a lot of long term upside here, but there’s not much in the short term.

Alexandre Texier – Goal and two assists with three shots.  And it wasn’t even his best game in their back-to-back, spoiler alert!  He’s an elite streamer while he’s on fire.

Cole Caufield – Goal and an assist with four shots.  Caufield is right on pace for 40+40.  Pretty, pretty good.

Karel Vejmelka – 32 saves on 33 shots in the 3-1 win over the Senators.  The save percentage is rough, but the GAA is tolerable and the wins are good.  Sounds like a middling to bottom end #2 in this day and age.

Clayton Keller – Two assists with a shot and two PIM.  Keller is quite a bit behind last season’s totals, but I sitll think he’s got a prolonged hot streak in him.

Matt Grzelcyk – Two assists with a shot.  He’s getting PP2 time lately, but his overall numbers are still very bad.  I’m not interested.

Connor Murphy – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM.  Murphy has never had 20 points in a season.  That says enough.

Louis Crevier – Goal and an assist with two shots.  It’s better than in the past, but I still don’t see any value for Crevier.

Oliver Moore – Goal and an assist.  He’s getting power play time, but Moore is on the third line.  It’s been a decent start to his career, but Moore is far away from fantasy contributions.

Landon Slaggert – Goal and an assist with two shots.  This matches Slaggert’s points from his first 16 games.  The moral of the story here is while Chicago has been far more respectable than expected, there’s not a lot of fantasy value outside of the obvious guys.

Macklin Celebrini – Goal and two assists with seven shots.  The kid is ridiculous.  He might be a top 5 pick next season already?  It’s firmly in play.

Joel Edmundson – Two assists with two shots.  How he has 16 points already, I have no idea.  Not interested.

Kevin Fiala – Goal and an assist with four shots.  Five game point streak for Fiala, rewarding us who have been stubborn in holding him.  It’s not great, but 30+30 pushing three shots per game is enough.

Alex Turcotte – Goal and an assist with four shots.  Turcotte was very noticeable in this game, but one good week isn’t enough to move Turcotte onto the streaming radar.

Thursday’s Games:

Stuart Skinner – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 4-1 win over the Devils.  Man, the Devils are a tire fire at the moment.  Skinner has played very well in his last three starts.  He’s not an automatic hold, but the Pens continue to surprise, and Skinner could be the beneficiary.

Connor Dewar – Goal and an assist with two PIM.  Okay deep league value, but even that is a stretch.

Sidney Crosby – Two assists with a shot.  Eight game point streak for Crosby, who isn’t slowing down at all.  Truly remarakable stuff.

Erik Karlsson – Goal and an assist with two shots.  If you told me before the season that Karlsson would be break even in plus-minus, I’d have guessed he was a top 20 defenseman.  He’s not quite there because the goals are down, but he could easily reach that level.  Very impressive bounce back.

Rickard Rakell – Two assists with four shots.  Rakell is towards the fringe but I definitely lean towards bottom end hold.

Dennis Hildeby – 22 saves on 23 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Flyers.  Hildeby has been quite good for Toronto, but the team was playing poorly in front of him.  Now, they’re playing better, so he’s a solid streaming option.

Jason Zucker – Goal and an assist with three shots.  The Sabres power play was dreadful with Zucker out, despite the team going on a big winning streak.  Zucker has 10+10 in 23 games and is firmly on the fringe.

Mattias Samuelsson – Goal and an assist.  I can’t remember a jump like this from a player well into his career.  In the summer, I was hoping that Samuelsson would get bought out.  Now, he’s a clear top pair defenseman.  He’s worth holding in all formats despite the lack of power play time.

Ryan McLeod – Goal and an assist with two shots.  Middling streamer held back by his poor shot rate.

Artemi Panarin – Two assists with four shots.  Insane hot streak from Panarin, who has four straight multi-point games.  Too bad the team around him is mostly a tire fire.

Sam Bennett – Two goals on four shots with two PIM.  Bennett has at least one point in nine of the last ten games and has fully rounded back into form.  Clear hold everywhere.

Alexandre Texier – Hat trick on six shots.  He’s in elite streamer territory for the time being.

Oliver Kapanen – Goal and two assists.  Kapanen wasn’t really on my radar going into the season, but he’s been quite impressive.  He’s made a fan out of me long term, although for now, he’s only a middling streamer.  There’s a decent chance the Habs trade for a 2C to bring in over him as well.

Taylor Hall – Goal and an assist with three shots.  Hall is stuck as a bottom end streamer in his current role.

Jalen Chatfield – Goal and an assist with three shots.  And there’s your annual Chatfield update!

Logan Stankoven – Goal and an assist with two shots.  I was hoping Stankoven would get a big role this season, but instead, he’s doing less than he did in Dallas last season.  Bottom end streamer, although I still think there can be more long term.

John Gibson – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 5-1 win over the Canucks.  Gibson is a fine #3, but that’s about it.  He’s sitting right around 3.00/.900.

James van Riemsdyk – Two assists with two shots.  JVR assists before this week: two.  JVR assists in the last two games: four.  Hockey!  He is on PP1 now, giving JVR a bump to middling streamer.

J.T. Compher – Goal and an assist with four shots.  Lucas Raymond (1+1) bumped down to the third line in this one with JVR and Compher, which helped both out.  Even with that, I don’t have much interest in Compher.

Axel Sandin-Pellikka – Goal and an assist.  There’s a lot of long term upside for Sandin-Pellikka, but it has not gone particularly well for the 20 year old.  Super deep league only.

Joonas Korpisalo – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 4-1 win over the Flames.  Korpisalo has been atrocious all season, so I’m passing.

Sean Kuraly – Goal and an assist with two shots.  Tanner Jeannot dished two assists.  Absolutely not.

Connor McDavid – Goal and an assist, as did Evan Bouchard.  That brings McDavid’s point streak up to 17 games.  It’s no surprise that the Oilers have gotten back on track as a result.

Kyle Connor – Goal and an assist with three shots.  Mark Scheifele dished two assists.  the Jets have shockingly lost 11 games in a row, but these two haven’t slowed down at all.

Juuse Saros – 30 saves on 31 shots in the 2-1 SO win over David Rittich (26/27) and the Isles.  Rittich has been shockingly good and has a case to be held.  Nashville has seemingly turned the corner and are back in the playoff hunt.  We were never cutting Saros anyways, but at least the wins are now decent.

Josh Manson – Two goals and two assists with five shots, seven PIM, three hits, four blocks, and a +5 rating.  Holy smokes, if any of you randomly have Manson in a deep leagues, congrats to you!  He’s reasonable for deep leagues just for the secondary categories.

Nathan MacKinnon – Goal and three assists with five shots.  That’s the third time in five games that MacKinnon had four points.  What an animal.

Brock Nelson – Two goals and an assist.  Nelson has completely turned his season around and is must own everywhere.

Ross Colton – Three assists with four shots.  He did get some time with Nelson in this game.  If that’s a sign of things to come, it will be a big boost for Colton.  We’ll have to see what happens against Columbus on Saturday.

Cale Makar – Goal and two assists.  If Makar can stay healthy, it looks like he’ll have a real shot at getting to 100 points.

Martin Necas – Goal and an assist.  The shot rate is down, but Necas is going to completely smash all of his previous career highs.  Couldn’t be working out better for the Avs.

Kirill Kaprizov – Two assists with four shots.  Kaprizov hasn’t quite been at his best this season, but he’s still incredible.

Brock Faber – Goal and an assist with three shots.  Faber is a clear hold in all formats while he’s stumbling into enough points playing with Hughes.

Vince Dunn – Two assists with four shots.  Dunn has been boring, but he’s a perfectly fine depth defenseman in all formats.

Boone Jenner – Goal and an assist with three shots.  Jenner has a point in five of his last six games, and the shot rate is solid as always.  He’s pushing close to elite streamer status.

Sean Monahan – Two assists with a shot.  Massive drop off from last season, which isn’t much of a surprise.  It was always going to be hard for Monahan to go back to a point per game player after years below it.  For now, middling streamer.

Mark Stone – Goal and two assists with three shots.  Stone has been absolutely insane this season with 37 points in 26 games.  Just stay healthy!

Reilly Smith – Two goals.  Even with a bump to the second line, I can’t get Smith past bottom end streamer without power play time.

Tomas Hertl – Two assists with five shots.  Easy bottom end hold.

Jack Eichel – Goal and an assist with four shots.  Eichel has been better than last season, which is saying a lot.

Mitch Marner – Two assists with a shot.  Marner is actually playing some center at the moment which is a surprise.  He is atrocious at faceoffs, but he definitely has the defensive acumen for it.  It’s been very disappointing overall from Marner, but he’s still over a point per game.