My love for Alex Ovechkin is no secret for the readers who frequent these parts. The best goal scorer of all time continues to torment the opposition as he’s in the midst of one of the best starts of his career. Ovechkin had a goal and two assists with six shots against the Sabres on Monday. Through twelve games, Ovechkin has a ridiculous 11+10 with 60 shots on goals. That’s five shots per game, which he’s had that or more in seven straight games. The Great Eight is playing his best hockey at even strength in years at age 36. Don’t take Alex Ovechkin for granted! Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Monday’s Games:
Evgeny Kuznetsov – Three assists with a shot. Kuznetsov played over 25 minutes in this game as he’s consistently buzzed all over the ice. I’ve done a complete 180 on Kuznetsov as he’s revived his game.
Tom Wilson – Two goals on four shots. The third wheel on the top line, we know what Wilson is going to give us at this point. Solid player who is better in fantasy than real life.
Patric Hornqvist – Goal and an assist with six shots. All of the moves by Florida have left Hornqvist in a smaller role than last season. He’s more top end streamer than hold now.
Chris Kreider – Goal and an assist with three shots. His goals vs. expected goals have the biggest gap in the entire NHL as Kreider has massively overachieved so far. That said, the Rangers top line will always score more than expected, so I’m not expecting major regression. Kreider has the role I dreamed of for him going into the season, which I didn’t expect him to get. He should be a top 100 player again.
Mika Zibanejad – Two assists with a shot. The shots are a little more up and down than we’re used to, but things are just fine for Mika.
Artemi Panarin – Two assists. I really don’t understand the massive drop in shot rate for Panarin. It’s been less than a month so I’m not panicking, but I’m not overly concerned.
Jonathan Quick – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 5-1 win over the Leafs. Quick has started off extremely well while he splits with Petersen. I’m not really buying in, but you can hold if you want to risk it with the hot hand.
Phillip Danault – Two goals and an assist with seven shots. Danault being over two shots per game is a massive surprise. He’s used in a defensive role, but he’s still a middling streamer as his speedy wingers can counter fast in Andreas Athanasiou (1+1, 3 SOG) and Alex Iafallo (2A, 2 SOG).
Tuesday’s Games:
David Pastrnak – Two assists with six shots and two PIM. You couldn’t get a third point for me for the challenge? That’s not right!
Charlie McAvoy – Two assists with a shot and four PIM. McAvoy has been solid across the board besides in shots, which hasn’t had a big boost despite massive minutes. That’s going to cap his ceiling a bit going forward. It’s hard to see him ever being a top 10 D with that shot rate.
Artturi Lehkonen – Two assists. Lehkonen had only one assist in the first 13 games and less than 1.5 shots per game. Easy pass.
Owen Tippett – Goal and an assist with four shots. Tippett has an elite shot, but is under two per game on the season. He’s getting second line minutes which alone makes him relevant on Tampa, but he’s still only a bottom end streamer for me.
Carter Verhaeghe – Two assists with two shots. I still have Verhaeghe on the fringe, but a small lean towards hold. That shot rate really needs to get up for him to have any prayer of sniffing last season’s 30+ goal pace.
Ty Smith – Goal and two assists with three shots. Smith was good at points last season, but he had 0 points in 7 games before this. I’m not to a point where I’d use him in fantasy.
P.K. Subban – Goal and an assist with three shots. Washed former star remains washed.
Andreas Johnsson – Two goals with two PIM. He’s shown some signs of returning to his Toronto level, but I still have Johnsson as a bottom end streamer.
Jonas Siegenthaler – Two assists. And there’s your annual Seigenthaler update!
Nico Hischier – Goal and an assist with two shots. Hischier has failed to meet the #1 overall pick standards. He’s on the fringe at the moment.
Dawson Mercer – Two assists. Like him long term, but a middling streamer for now.
Frederik Andersen – 17 saves on 18 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Lightning. A ridiculous call got Carolina their only goal which sent the game to OT, but Andersen owners won’t care. He’s been one of the best goalies in the league to this point.
Vladislav Namestnikov – Two goals on four shots. Names surprisingly has seven goals this season already… on 19 shots. Clearly the regression fairies are coming.
Michael Rasmussen – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. The former top ten pick hasn’t put the offense together to this point in his career. Very little fantasy value here.
Pavel Buchnevich – Goal and an assist, as did Jordan Kyrou. Kyrou has been fantastic, and I’m going to be stubborn on Buchnevich. Big fan of the player and he has the role to succeed. The shots are there as are the minutes so it’s only a matter of time until he breaks out.
Jeff Carter – Two goals on seven shots with two PIM. Both goals were assisted by Jake Guentzel. As long as Carter is on the first line, he’s a no brainer hold.
Adin Hill – 37 saves on 38 shots in the 4-1 win over the Flames. After the Jones debacle for the last few years, especially with Dubnyk last season, it’s refreshing to see the Sharks occasionally get good goaltending. Reimer has been better than Hill, but Hill still has some value. I’d stream him in decent matchups.
Brent Burns – Two assists with a shot. I’m all for this Burns revival.
Troy Terry – Goal and an assist with four shots playing over 22 minutes. The Terry breakout is real. Easy hold in all formats.
Jamie Drysdale – Two assists with a shot. I’m on the fringe with Drysdale, but I lean towards not holding. He’s not doing well at evens which is a big concern.
Brock Boeser – Two assists with four shots. Boeser has been pretty good to start the season, although I’d like to see the shot rate get back around three per game so he can reach his full fantasy potential.
Quinn Hughes – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. Excellent start to the season for Hughes as he’s over a point per game piling up the assists. The shot rate is even okay for a defenseman.
Alex Pietrangelo – Goal and an assist with three shots. Safe to say that Pietrangelo has found his game again.
Reilly Smith – Two goals on five shots. Shockingly, Smith is well over three shots per game right now after never being over 2.5 before. That puts him on the fringe, although I lean towards elite streamer.
Jonathan Marchessault – Two assists with two shots. Some of those Smith shots are coming out of Marchessault’s total, but he’s still been solid. It’s not as strong of a hold as usual, but I’m still holding.
Shea Theodore – Two assists with three shots. Four game point streak for Theodore who also looks to have found his game again.
William Carrier – Two assists. Vegas is using Carrier more than really want to right now, but he still doesn’t have any fantasy relevance.
Three Point Challenge: For those that are new or need a refresher, you pick one player to score three points in a game but they can’t be in the top ten in points. We’re going with Thursday’s games, and with the Top 10 from last season for the time being. That means you can’t take McDavid, Draisaitl, Marchand, Marner, Kane, Matthews, Rantanen, MacKinnon, Scheifele, or Crosby. Fungazi remains the only one on the leaderboard. I’ll go with Pastrnak again against the Oilers.
That’s all for now guys. I should be back on Friday night recapping the action from the next two nights. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
Perron of the Blues for the 3 points
Sounds good!
wait kreider’s projected goals are somehow higher than namesnikov’s? 7/19 the latter as mentioned, that’s both crazy.
That probably changed after last night’s game so Names passed him, but I assume it’s still close.
whats everyones thoughts on Knight right now? I picked up Swayman to stream and thankfully benched knight but now Im not so sure who the drop is!
Is Garland still a hold also when he is pp2 and third line? Hard to hold people with low peripherals and no ppg or ppa
Knight’s very meh in redraft formats for me. Too raw. Should get wins in Florida though so I think he’s the better hold than Swayman.
Garland is expendable…could do better, could do worse.
I’m still a huge fan long term and I think the floor is fairly high right now because the wins will be there. I’d hold Knight for now.
Garland is on the fringe for me, you can probably find an upgrade.
ya just gonna stream out of that spot there are a few forwards at Garlands level out there. Appreciate it!! JKJ I searched the hockey reddit and saw your defense posts. They are great! Erik Karlsshark was dropped because of Covid he worthy of holding this year? Last year he was so meh was wondering why his ownership was so high
He started out the season very well. Maybe he bounces back like his teammate Burns has, or maybe it was just a hot start. Don’t have a strong feeling on Karlsson either way.
Hey there all, what’s doin Viz!
A couple of questions I thought I’d pose and get your thoughts:
What’s your take on Chychrun on AZ? What are your expectations the rest of the season…
also, my net minding has me in the basement shitter; I have Markstrom but unfortunately also have Grubauer and Greiss and Khudobin (Francouz on IR) Cats are:
GS, W, L, GA, GAA, SV, SA*, SV% and SHO
Barring a trade, Free Agents available are:
Lankinen, Murray, Vejmelka and not much else…
If this is your team how do you proceed? At this point starting Grubauer or Khudobin seems like throwing napalm on a dumpster fire…
Cheers
Hey James! I’m having a really tough time with Chychrun. I love his talent, but the team is a dumpster fire. He’s been super unlucky in terms of goals, but he’s -20 and I’m not sure how much better he’s going to get. It depends a bit on your categories as for what to do with him, so if you let me know, I’ll give you a better answer.
These goaltending categories are a bit strange. You’re incentivized to play as many goalies as possible with GS, W, and SV, but discouraged by L, GA, and SA. Is this roto or H2H? That makes a big impact on what I’d do as well. Get back to me and I’ll give you a more detailed answer, thanks!
So I made the move for Grubauer. Dropped Swayman. I think that he will come around. Like I said in my other post. Always starts slowly. Hopefully he will turn things around soon. Big Berts nephew is still sitting out there on waivers. Not loving his anti vax slant, but would you rather Bertuzzi over Garland or Fiala? Or is he just having a hot start and will fizzle off. The anti-Fiala you might say. What do you guys think the deal is with Petry? He has been a solid, even underrated, fantasy option for years. Ive never had him on any of my teams before. But he fell so far this year that I had to take the plunge. May have to try to deal Garland and his hot start for an upgrade on D.
Sounds good on the goalie move. I’d grab Bertuzzi over Garland right now. I think Bertuzzi will cool off some, but he has a big role and Garland has been dropped to third line which sucks.
I don’t know what’s going on with Petry, the shot rate has fallen off a cliff. He’s been great for a while now and he’s massively disappointed. The Canadiens have had brutal shooting luck with Petry on the ice, both with Montreal shots and the opposition’s, but that won’t fix his own poor shot rate. I’m still hopeful of a bounce back, but it needs to start sooner than later.
Thanks, Viz.
Juuse Saros, starting him tonight @ DAL? Is he an automatic start regardless of opponent?
I’ll go with Kopitar vs OTT for the 3 points.
Also, how about Campbell @ PHI tonight? His home/away splits are not so good. Thanks.
Yes, I think Saros is automatic. There’s a chance Rittich plays though so keep an eye on it.
I would play Campbell too, there’s a lot of money coming in on under 6 goals and Toronto is still a decent favorite to win. I have a hard time sitting goalies when they’re favorites to win in the game.
Sounds good on Kopitar.
Thanks, for the feedback! Much appreciated!
Always!
It’s a H2H league
Cats are:
G, A, +\-, PIM, PP A&G, SHP, GWG,SOG
What’s worse is Chychrun and Grubauer were Keepers! )
Thanks for the time as always
Sidebar-who would you’ve targeting in net as a buy low candidate to make a trade for?
So in head to head, I’m inclined to roll my goalies and hope for the best. If you sit guys, you cap your upside because you can never win the categories that encourage volume, and if you get ahead, you can decide which route to take. I never expected those two to be that bad to start, especially Chychrun.
Generally, it’s guys who have a lot of shot volume who aren’t scoring yet. On the lower end, Buchnevich, Fiala, Varlamov, Caufield when recalled, Faulk come to mind . On the higher end, Barzal, Scheifele, Pettersson look good to target.
Thanks for the input!–duly noted
Any buy-low goalies you’d be shrewdly looking to acquire?
Varlamov for sure, I think Kuemper and Grubauer also turn it around a bit.
Thanks Viz; I’ll look into Varly, see if that gets any traction… Cheers
No problem! Sorokin isn’t going anywhere, but I do expect Varly to get back to be a top 10 goalie on a per-game basis.
Hi!
G/A/SOG/BLK/PPP and +/-, 8-teamer
Horvat, Larkin or Dubois ROS?
Hmm, tough one here. Lean towards Larkin barely over Dubois, with Horvat not far behind either.
Lindholm for 3 pnt!
Sounds good!
Hi Viz,
What are your thoughts about this trade?
My Hamilton, mike Smith and Garland for his Kaprizov, Kuemper and Weegaar?
G, A, P, +/-, SOG, Hits, PPP and W, GAA, SV % and SO are the categories.
Thanks!
LG
Hmm, this seems pretty fair both ways. Comes down a bit to what your team needs, but I’d have no problem accepting this if you want the goalie upgrade and all of Weegar’s hits.
barkov @ PIT for 3 pt thurs.
and in a great sitcom title: “uncle leo goes to russia”
v.rask now completely scratched, often. can anybody think of anybody else that for seemingly little/no reason jumps from a number 1 line center (i know MIN was doing that numerous different times across numerous seasons and it seemed terrible every time i saw it happen) to benched? makes no sense, imagine in baseball having your leadoff man in game 1 of a season hitting like 8th and only against lefties around like a month into a season. it basically never happens.
Sounds good on Barkov… yeah, that doesn’t happen much at all. Dylan Strome a couple times would go from first line to out last season, but that’s all I can really think of.
good call, yr right, d.strome def went from 1st liner with kane sometimes to scratched last year (maybe 2 years ago, i can’t remember exactly when ARI dumped him, probably 2 years ago too). i remember this specifically as he was dropped in some 16’er dynasties and i literally remembered him being dropped, having some intent on waivering and either forgot to input waiver and/or got beat each time. got mad at self during the forgot instances, but so far, turns out (and this is REALLY weird, compared to their draft rankings when drafted/prospect grades etc) r.strome has become the better one of them (so far it’s not close either).
Viz if you were drafting today in a league with G, A, PPP and SOG, would you take Giroux or Nugent-Hopkins first? Both are C/W.
I’m in a fun H2H league where if you win the week, you get to steal a player from the other team, and those are his best two guys I get to choose from.
I’m a little short on G and PPP and while Nuge isn’t putting literally anything in the net, my god those assist and PPP’s are tempting.
Wow, that’s interesting. I think I’d go with RNH. Those assists are through the roof, including on the PP, and I can’t believe that his opportunities won’t start turning into goals. The floor is higher than Giroux’s and the ceiling might be higher too, it’s at least equal.