It took a few injuries, but we finally had some goaltender movement. Petr Mrazek, who appeared to be Detroit’s franchise goalie less than two years ago, is now a member of the Flyers. In return, Detroit received two conditional draft picks. Best case scenario, they’ll get a 2nd and 3rd round picks. Worst case, they only get a 4th. So what is the fantasy impact? I’ve been writing for a few weeks that Mrazek should be owned everywhere because he was finally playing well. That’s clear as day now going to a much better situation in Philly, so grab him if he’s still available. As for in Detroit, it should be Jimmy Howard‘s show. He has a .910 save percentage this season, which is closer to his career norm than last season’s .927 in 26 games. I don’t see him as being much more than a desperation play going forward outside of the best matchups. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Jason Zucker – Two goals on three shots. Nothing cures a team’s scoring woes like going against the Islanders. That applies more to the rest of the Wild guys than Zucker, but making the point early. Zucker has been strong across the board this season.
Matt Cullen – Goal and an assist. Not that it does much in fantasy, but he’s coming on lately, to the point where I don’t see Minnesota moving him back to Pittsburgh as previously rumored.
Ryan Suter – Two assists with a shot playing over 30 minutes. The floor is the ceiling and the ceiling is the floor. We can predict what Suter is going to do each season within a small range, and he’s going to be a #2D most seasons.
Tyler Ennis – Goal and an assist. The minutes aren’t there right now so he’s not even a bottom end streamer.
Matt Dumba – Two assists with a shot. The goals are coming in strong so Dumba has solidified himself as a hold. I just wish he was able to get that shot rate up because it could be great across the board.
Anders Lee – Goal and an assist with four shots. That gives Lee 30 goals already. I took a little shizznit for ranking Lee as high as I did, and he’s been better than even I expected, but hopefully he ended up on a bunch of your teams having him much higher than ADP.
John Carlson – Goal and an assist with two shots on Monday, three shots Tuesday. Such a good season from Carlson across the board.
Tuukka Rask – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Flames. Rask is a clear member of the elite tier of goalies this season.
Ryan Ellis – Goal and an assist with three shots Monday, two assists on Tuesday. Ellis is still available in 1/3rd of leagues which makes no sense to me. If you happen to be in one of those league, grab him now. Do it now! <Arnold voice from Predator>
Roman Josi – Goal and an assist with six shots Monday, two assists with four shots Tuesday. Josi has taken his shot rate to superstar level for defensemen. The points might not be as good as two seasons ago (61), but he’s still a #1.
Filip Forsberg – Two assists with a shot Monday, two shots Tuesday. Shot rate is down this season and I’m not entirely sure why. Regardless, the points are coming in at a career best clip.
Kevin Fiala – Two assists with a shot Monday, blanks on Tuesday. Fiala is a great GPP DFS play because his points seem to come in bunches.
Viktor Arvidsson – Two goals on nine shots Monday, goal on three shots Tuesday. Arvidsson’s recent form has him right on last season’s 61 point pace along with 3 shots per game. Pretty, pretty good.
Dion Phaneuf – Goal on three shots Monday, goal on four shots Tuesday. The power play time has been solid since going to L.A. making Phaneuf a nice hold at the bottom of rosters.
Jonathan Quick – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 3-1 win over the Blackhawks. Nice run of form from Quick who is firmly in the second tier of goalies as a middling to bottom end #1.
Adrian Kempe – Assist with a shot and two PIM on Monday, two assists with two shots on Tuesday. On a team lacking long-term upside, Kempe is a bright spot. He obviously needs to improve but I’m encouraged about his long term upside in dynasties.
Alec Martinez – Assist on Monday, goal and an assist Tuesday. He still has a long way to go in order to be 12’er relevant, but in deep leagues, I’d grab Martinez for his recent PP time and elite blocks.
Rickard Rakell – Two assists with two shots. He’s already set a career high in assists and the jump in shot rate gives him a chance to repeat last season’s 30+ goals with a normal shooting percentage. Rakell looks like a guy who will come in the 51-75 range going forward.
John Gibson – 13 saves on 13 shots in 40 minutes before leaving another game early. Then Ryan Miller came in and stopped 20 third period shots in the 2-0 win over Vegas. This is getting extremely tiresome with Gibson as he keeps leaving games early. You can’t really do much about it except cover yourself owning Miller as well, but it’s not like you can start both of them every time the Ducks play. Fingers crossed that it stops.
Sergei Bobrovsky – 30 saves on 31 shots in the 2-1 win over the Devils. With CBJ firmly in a battle to make the playoffs, look for Bob to play almost all of the games the rest of the way. Given that, I would lean towards picking him as my #1 goalie for the rest of the season.
Taylor Hall – Goal on five shots. Is an 18 game point streak good? Asking for Hall, who currently has one. I will never stop laughing at Edmonton trading him.
Jakub Voracek – Two goals and an assist. Because of Giroux’s bounce back and Couturier’s breakout, Voracek’s season has been overlooked. He’s only leading the league in assists, no big deal guys.
Shayne Gostisbehere – Two assists with three shots. Ghost Bear has been extremely consistent, which is outstanding given the up and down nature of last season.
Alex Lyon – 25 saves on 27 shots in the 3-2 OT win over the Canadiens. He’s not much of a prospect, and Mrazek’s arrival kills any short-term value.
Roberto Luongo – 30 saves on 31 shots in the 1-0 loss to the Maple Leafs. Tough loss for Bobby Lu, who looks healthy. The better news is that Boughner said that Luongo is going to get the majority of starts for the rest of the season making him must own everywhere.
Frederik Andersen – 40 save shutout over Florida. The goals against average is average at best, but the wins and save percentage are great. He’s been a bottom end #1 who has upside to get even better in the future. Well, he won’t be better, but his GAA should be.
Nikita Kucherov – Goal on three shots. Including him solely to show this goal and how good it is:
Nikita Kucherov does the "no move" on Braden Holtby at All-Star Game. Does it again on him when it counts pic.twitter.com/tEtQ77N1FW
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) February 21, 2018
Ryan Callahan – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. Big Tom Callahan’s son doesn’t do much for us anymore in the fantasy realm.
Brayden Point – Two goals on three shots. What a season by Point. I thought he’d be a strong streamer and even a hold at times, but he was incredible in October and hasn’t really slowed down. I’m still torn on him long term and need to do some more digging into how sustainable this is.
Andreas Athanasiou – Goal and an assist with four shots. The minutes are there for Athanasiou to get back to streamer status, he just needs to put a couple of games together.
Logan Couture – Goal and an assist with two shots. Super steady all season.
Mikkel Boedker – Goal and an assist with three shots. He’s played with Couture now and had his third straight two point game. If you want to try and take advantage of the heater, I don’t mind streaming Boedker.
Dustin Byfuglien – Goal and an assist with seven shots and four penalty minutes. Big Buff doing Big Buff things!
Blake Wheeler – Goal and an assist with two shots. All he does is casually put up points almost every game. Not a big deal that Wheeler already has a nice 69 points on the season.
Tyson Barrie – Goal and four assists with three shots. You don’t see someone have five points and be -2 too often, but that’s what happens when you have five power play points. The plus-minus isn’t that bad this year so Barrie should be owned in all formats.
Nathan MacKinnon – Goal and three assists with six shots and two PIM. Nice for you to be back in form, Mr. MacKinnon.
Mikko Rantanen – Goal and two assists with two shots. The few 21 year olds that play near point-per-game pace usually get national discussion on a regular basis, but Rantanen has managed to go under the radar. The shot rate will have to go up in the future, but Rantanen has the makings of a top 50 player with upside from there.
Gabriel Landeskog – Goal and an assist with four shots. Average PIM, below average shot rate, solid points, good plus-minus. In other words, Landeskog has been good in things that I didn’t expect and worse than expected in his usual strengths. Regardless, he’s been a solid fantasy asset all season.
Brandon Sutter – Goal and an assist with six shots. To be honest, I don’t really care about Sutter at this point in his career. Not that I ever cared that much.
Nikolay Goldobin – Goal and an assist. He has a long way to go, but he’s a massive upside, incredibly low floor player. If Goldobin developed into an offensive force, I wouldn’t be surprised. If he’s out of the league in a few years, wouldn’t surprise me either. If you want to swing for the fences in a deep dynasty, he’s a fine option.
That’s all for now guys. My next set of notes will be on Friday morning. Lackeydrinksonme will have a write up on goalies coming out Thursday morning so be sure to check that out. Reid and I will probably have a podcast as well that will go up later on Thursday. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
