Loyal Razzballers know that I’ve been a big fan of Juuse Saros for a while. He’s had a tough start to this season, but I still believe in the player long term. Saros was less than two minutes from a shutout on Tuesday, making 24 saves on 25 shots in the 2-1 win over the Sharks. His overall numbers are still poor, but the Predators have started to tighten up defensively. Saros is still only 24 years old and is one of the best long term goaltending prospects. Saros is starting to see even more action starting five of the last eight games. There’s real upside here so if you need goaltending help, I’d grab him now. Additionally, I would try to get him in a dynasty league before he boosts his value back up. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Joonas Donskoi – Goal and an assist with three shots. He’s still producing as expected despite the role reduction. I’m still holding for the time being.
Nathan MacKinnon – Goal and an assist with eight shots. Easy Hart frontrunner two months into the season.
Ryan Graves – Goal and an assist with three shots. Graves has turned into a great option in deeper leagues for the PIM, hits, and blocks. The points aren’t necessarily sustainable, but they should be better than most of the guys who hit those categories.
Matthew Tkachuk – Goal and an assist with three shots Monday before missing Tuesday’s game with a UBI. He’s listed as day to day so it shouldn’t be too serious.
Semyon Varlamov – 31 saves on 32 shots in the 5-1 win over the Lightning. There are fewer certainties in fantasy hockey than Trotz’ goalies being extremely valuable.
Brock Nelson – Two goals on five shots. He’s still available in over 1/3rd of leagues and I don’t understand it.
Josh Bailey – Goal and an assist with two shots. The points are there but he has exactly one shot per game. He’s scoring on 27.6% of his shots so I want absolutely nothing to do with him.
Anders Lee – Goal and an assist with three shots. Lee is having a poor season by his standards. He’s still a strong to elite streamer but Lee isn’t an auto hold.
Cam Atkinson – Two goals on four shots. The shot rate is still there which keeps him a hold for me. If your league doesn’t include SOG, then I’d probably use Atkinson as a streamer.
Alex Ovechkin – Goal and an assist with six shots. He’s found a way to be even better than the last few seasons at 34 years old.
Nicklas Backstrom – Goal and an assist with three shots. The shot rate is much better than usual for Backs but his shooting percentage is the lowest of his career. If anything, things should get better for him.
Brad Marchand – Two assists with two shots. David Pastrnak also had two assists. Even when Boston lays an egg against the Senators, these two still find a way to post two points.
Anthony Duclair – Two goals and an assist with six shots. I’ve been pushing him as a hold for a couple weeks now but this game makes it a no doubter now.
Chris Tierney – Goal and two assists with two shots. Poor PIM, very poor shots, easy pass.
Vladislav Namestnikov – Two assists with two PIM. He’s a bottom end streamer until the minutes go back up.
Dylan DeMelo – Two assists with two shots and four PIM. And there’s your annual DeMelo tournament.
Jack Eichel – Two goals with two PIM. Eichel is in the midst of a 14 game point streak and has been the best player in the league over the last month. I like Eich! Sam Reinhart and Victor Olofsson also had two points each.
Johan Larsson – Goal and an assist with three shots. Zemgus Girgensons also had a goal and an assist as the fourth line played extremely well in this game. In fact, they’re probably the third line now if not the second in terms of minutes. That said, there’s little value with either of these guys.
Linus Ullmark – 28 saves on 30 shots in the 5-2 win over the Blues. He’s started 10 of the last 13 games and needs to be owned everywhere. He’s available in over 90% of his leagues so stop here, go add Ullmark, and then come back to finish the post!
Carey Price – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 4-1 win over the Penguins. That’s four solid or better starts in a row for Price, but he’s still only a bottom end #2 for me.
Shea Weber – Goal and an assist with two shots. Just stay healthy!
Tomas Tatar – Goal and an assist with two shots. Tatar has been fantastic this season. I’m still very confused as to why Tatar didn’t work in Vegas, but regardless he’s played his way into being a slam dunk hold.
Brendan Gallagher – Goal and an assist with four shots. Gallagher has been his usual strong self.
Joel Armia – Goal and an assist with two shots. Armia has made tremendous strides this season. He’s taking over three shots per game now and the minutes are starting to jump up. He’s a great streamer.
Andrei Vasilevskiy – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 2-1 win over the Panthers. Still expecting Tampa and Vasilevskiy to go on a huge tear sooner than later.
Sergei Bobrovsky – 46 saves on 48 shots as the tough luck loser. I wrote about Bob extensively on Monday so check out that post if you haven’t done so.
Calle Jarnkrok – Goal and an assist with four PIM. Jarnkrok is going to smash all of his previous career highs at this rate. He’s playing on the first line at the moment which puts him firmly on the fringe.
Filip Forsberg – Two assists with a shot and four PIM. Forsberg has been great when healthy this season which comes as no surprise. Hopefully he just stays healthy.
Evander Kane – Two shots and 19 PIM. My god, he is losing his mind every other night right now. If you have him in head to head, you’re auto winning PIM. As great as that is, I would love for him to, you know, score some goals and stuff.
Laurent Brossoit – 15 saves on 15 shots in 58:51 in the 5-1 win over the Red Wings. He left the game for a minute to get his equipment repaired only for Hellboy to give up a goal. Anyways, Brossoit isn’t good, but use anyone against the Red Wings right now.
Blake Wheeler – Goal and an assist with three shots. After a slow start, Wheeler has eleven points in the last eight games. Wheeler has been outstanding despite playing at center due to Winnipeg injuries.
Andrew Copp – Goal and an assist with three shots. Little to see here.
Ben Bishop – 26 save shutout in the 2-0 win over the Devils. Few things to mention here. One, Bishop is as good as it gets right now. Two, start everyone against the Devils. Three, the Dallas situation is extremely weird with Montgomery fired. I’m not sure how they’re going to adjust, but this game saw the players getting relatively equal playing time. Not much to take away from one game, but worth monitoring going forward.
Sebastian Aho – Two goals on four shots. Aho is on a huge tear right now which was only a matter of time. Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists as this line continues to crush.
Nino Niederreiter – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Both of these points came on the second power play unit. There is upside here, but Nino is a bottom end streamer in his current role.
Dougie Hamilton – Goal and an assist with five shots and two PIM. This goal is remarkable:
Dougie Hamilton fakes the dump-in and scores from center ice pic.twitter.com/cTn2JxFHk6
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 11, 2019
Connor McDavid – Three assists with a shot. It will be interesting to see what the story lines are come the end of the season. Does McDavid get punished for the Hart despite being the best player because of Draisaitl? Can it be ignored if he pushes 135+ points? Either way, McJesus is in a tier of his own.
Zach Kassian – Two goals on five shots with fourteen PIM. Must be nice to ride shotgun with McJesus. He should be owned just for the points and PIM combo.
Frederik Andersen – 38 saves on 39 shots in the 4-1 win over the Canucks. Andersen has been terrific as we expected with 2.48/.921 winning 60% of his starts.
John Tavares – Two goals and an assist with five shots. The shot rate has taken a step back this season compared to last, but it’s starting to climb back up. Everything looks pretty good for Tavares.
Mitch Marner – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. Marner has also had a big drop in shot rate. He has only five shots in the six games, with no more than one in any game. That’s a bit concerning and makes it possible for Marner to stay below 20 goals on the season.
Justin Holl – Two assists. And there’s your annual Holl update!
Reilly Smith – Goal and an assist with four shots. Smith has continued to be solid all season. He’s been an easy hold since the early going and while it’s not great, Smith has somewhat of a stranglehold on staying a hold.
Marc-Andre Fleury – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 5-1 win over the Blackhawks. I expect Vegas to really ride Fleury later on in the season as they push for the division to get home ice in their bracket. We could see a huge second half.
Jonathan Quick – 29 saves on 30 shots in the 3-1 win over the Rangers. Quick still has a 3.13/.888 despite three solid games in a row. You’d have to pay me to play Quick.
Tyler Toffoli – Goal and an assist. I don’t understand why the Kings aren’t playing Toffoli more than they just to boost his trade value. He’s a bottom end streamer at best.
Matt Roy – Two assists with two shots. Don’t see much here. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
We will do the Three Point Challenge for Thursday. I will take Evgeni Malkin on Thursday against CBus. Feel free to make your pick in the comment section.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action from the last two nights. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
