Good morning all, welcome to week 3 of the NHL season. Let’s begin per usual today with our best and worst team schedules for the week:
This week we have a total of 5 teams playing 4 games, listed here in descending order by strength of schedule we have: New Jersey, Philly, Toronto, Tampa, and Detroit. Out of the 5 only the Devils and Flyers play on two “off-nights” and with only a single game being played on either Monday or Wednesday and all 32 teams playing on Tuesday those off-nights are extra valuable this week.
Additionally, the worst team schedules for the week go to: Vancouver, Columbus, and Buffalo. Again, listed in descending order by strength of schedule. All 3 of these teams play only 2 games this week and all of those games will be played on “busy nights” in the league. As such, if you have any players on your roster that were either streams or are borderline droppable from any of these three I highly recommend you look into swapping them out if possible with a player from one of the teams with a stronger schedule above.
Players I’ve picked up or am eyeing for this week include:
- Anthony Cirelli and/or Nicholas Paul of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Odds are both of these guys are available on your waivers right now in either a 10 or 12 team league. Tampa has a strong schedule this week, both players are getting over 16 minutes of ice time per game, and both have 4 points in 4 games so far. I lean slightly on the Cirelli side if you’re stuck choosing one but either is a fine pickup for the week.
- Dawson Mercer is my Devils pick as he’s widely available, right-wing on the top line, and playing on the 2nd PP unit. He hasn’t been a super consistent point producer over his short career thus far but he has shown some serious goal scoring ability and a penchant for going on extended heaters. Even if he doesn’t end up doing just that this coming week I still think he’ll be good for at least 3+ points and a few blocked shots sprinkled in as well. Given his deployment and over 18 mins average TOI (time on ice) over the Devils’ first 8 games he’s a strong streaming start for the entirety of this coming week.
- I don’t feel like there are a ton of great defensive streaming pickups this week but if you’re desperatly in need I’d take a look at Jake McCabe. This is perhaps more of a banger-league pickup as he’s a guy who will mainly be providing hits and blocked shots. However, he’s getting a ton of ice time with Toronto right now at over 20:42 average per game and you might even see the odd assist or two over the span of the week as well for some additional added upside.
I want to end this week by doubling back to our discussion that began last week about some potential trade-for targets. We have a slightly larger sample-size of games to look at now. Lots of teams are still figuring things out and shifting lines around as we speak so this is certainly subject to change but here are some of my prime candidates as things stand:
- I said it last week and I’ll stick to my guns: I’m still very much into acquiring JT Miller. I think he’s a prime buy-low target right now as the Canucks have gotten off to a slower start than expected going 2-1-2 in their first 5 games over which they’ve only scored 14 goals (Miller has been a contributor to 6 of them). Additionally, Elias Pettersson has been somewhat of a ghost offensively dating back to the tail end of last season and has been demoted down to centering the second line with Miller manning the top line (both still play on the first powerplay). I expect Vancouver to start to ratchet up the pace in the coming weeks and when they do Miller is the guy you want on the team when they start to get hot, especially if you’re able to get him at any sort of discount right now.
- Where to start with the Winnipeg Jets… first off I’ll say I’m not completely sold on this team right now. Yes, they’re the only undefeated team left in the league and yes, they’re going berserk on offense with 24 goals over their first 5 games (this is led by only the Devils who have 27 goals but also 3 more games played on the season and tied by only the Rangers who have also potted 24 over their first 5). Frankly I feel like they do this to us fantasy managers every year. They look amazing for a short period of time when the offense is hot. Hellebuyck always carries them to a degree but then when the offense goes into a cold spell all hell breaks loose and at that point you wouldn’t want to touch anyone on the team with a 10 foot hockey stick. So, I’m personally playing it cautious right now and seeing if this really is who this team is for a bit longer before I rush out to trade for anyone. That being said, if YOU are convinced and you think now is the time to buy before prices go up you’re looking at the usual suspects: you may have to pay an arm and a leg to get him but if you can acquire him then Connor Hellebuyck is the player on this team that you want for the rest of the season above anyone else. If they’re winning like they’ve been winning he’s going to give you absolutely insane ratios/points and even if they start dropping some games he’ll still likely give you the same over the course of the season. He’s just that good. You thought I was going to say Kyle Connor for my next target didn’t you… wrong! I’d actually go after Mark Schiefele first. Although, Connor and Schiefele are both on the top line and first powerplay together I think you’ll find it far easier to trade for Schiefele than Connor generally. Over a season long period historically although Connor will generally end up with more goals than Schiefele he doesn’t tend to end up with more points, so you’re still getting great production at a potentially considerably lower trade price.
- I want to throw in one more trade-for candidate this week, a defenseman, and as we’ve only talked about some more obvious and big-name targets thus far I’m going to go with someone far less rostered: Lane Hutson. Now is the time to buy. Coming into the season the question was not whether this 20 year-old 2022 2nd round draft pick was a skilled d-man or not but if he’d get the playing time, with both Mike Matheson and David Savard playing as well on the blue line for Montreal as they had last season. The answer to that question thus far has been a resounding yes as he’s averaging 23:07 mins TOI over the Canadiens first 6 games. He’s been a force in both the blocked shots and hits categories and has contributed 4 assists as well. Currently on the second defensive pairing and second powerplay I also don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that we see him move up to the top pairing at some point this season. Especially if he continues to outplay Justin Barron, as he most certainly has thus far. For where he was drafted (if he was even drafted in your league) or what you’d likely have to pay to get him right now I think he’s an absolute steal rest of season.
As always, feel free to leave any questions about streams, goalies (I’d like to do a deeper dive into the fantasy goalie landscape for you guys next week), matchups, etc… below!
