Dallas locked up the last part of their core on Tuesday, signing Roope Hintz to an eight year contract extension. Even being in the midst of a three game pointless streak, Hintz remains over a point per game and based on game score, he’s a top ten forward in the league to this point of the season. I don’t expect him to maintain that pace, but his line is right there for the crown of best in the NHL. Fantasy wise, I’d like to see the shot rate uptick 10-20%, but even with where he is, Hintz is a solid piece towards the top end of your roster. If DeBoer played him 20+ minutes like he should instead of 17 per game, the numbers would be even better. Congrats to Hintz for securing the bag! Let’s see what happened over the last two nights:
Monday’s Games
Steven Stamkos – Two goals and an assist. That puts Stammer at 998 points for his career. What a boss.
Nikita Kucherov – Three assists with three shots and two PIM. I don’t know what Kucherov has against the Sabres, but he always does something extremely dirty. This time, it was an elbow to UPL’s head that somehow only was 2 PIM, allowing him to be back on the ice in the final two minutes to tie the game. One of the worst refereed games I’ve ever seen. Anyways, Kuch has been good as ever and I see no reason to expect a change.
Mikhail Sergachev – Three assists with a shot. He’s a clear #2 defenseman now with the chance to be a #1 with PP1 locked in.
Brayden Point – Two goals. It’s great to see Point playing at this level again.
Brandon Hagel – Goal and an assist with four shots. Hagel is on the fringe but I lean towards elite streamer.
Tage Thompson – Goal and an assist with four shots. Thompson has found another gear from last season, making people who questioned his extension look terrible immediately.
Auston Matthews – Goal and an assist with five shots. In NBA Jam terms, he’s heating up!
Rasmus Sandin – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. While he’s on PP1, Sandin is on the fringe. I lean towards hold, especially if you don’t have SOG as a category.
Moritz Seider – Goal and an assist with three shots. Seider has been a big disappointment despite the success of the Red Wings. I don’t see a big improvement coming, it’s just too hard to succeed playing with Chiarot.
Tomas Tatar – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Tatar is back to an elite streamer level for his all-around contribution.
Yegor Sharangovich – Two goals. Middling streamer.
Chris Kreider – Two assists with a shot. The Rangers are on the struggle bus right now, but Kreider has been very good considering his shooting percentage has regressed even more than expected. The assist rate blows his previous career high by a mile.
Gustav Nyqvist – Two assists with four shots. Bottom end streamer.
Johnny Gaudreau – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. The team is very bad, but Gaudreau is performing right in line with expectations.
Scott Wedgewood – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 4-1 win over the Blues. I feel good about streaming Wedgewood every time he starts while the Stars are playing this well.
Jamie Benn – Two assists with a shot. The fountain of youth continues to flow for Benn. He has to be held without hesitation at this point.
Wyatt Johnston – Goal and an assist with five shots. I really like Johnston’s game and see him as a very good fantasy piece in the long term. For now, he’s a middling streamer. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Matthew Tkachuk – Goal and an assist with four shots. He’s somehow managed to find another gear in Florida that’s even better than the 42+62 he had last season.
Zach Hyman – Three assists with five shots. It sounds like so much fun getting to play with Connor McDavid (1+2, 5 SOG) every night. Hyman is at a point per game doing what I predicted him to do last season. Sometimes it pays off to be stubborn!
Tuesday’s Games
Jeremy Swayman – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 3-1 win over the Lightning. Must own right now with Linus Ullmark day to day.
Taylor Hall – Two goals on three shots. Hall hasn’t clicked as much as I thought he could. He’s a solid streamer bordering on elite.
Kaapo Kahkonen – 28 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Habs. Kahkonen is a desperation play given the struggles of the Sharks and that he hasn’t shown much to this point of his career.
Logan Couture – Goal and an assist. Couture is playing great hockey with a goal in eight of his last ten games. I’m fine with holding while he’s en fuego, but he’s at least an elite streamer.
Tomas Hertl – Two goals on six shots. I also prefer elite streamer for Hertl, although a few more games with the shot rate up can bump that up.
Kevin Labanc – Two assists. Bottom end streamer unless he goes back to PP1, which will take an injury at this point.
Brett Pesce – Goal and an assist with four shots. He’s on a mini heater, but I still have no interest in Pesce for fantasy.
Sebastian Aho – Two assists with four shots. The master of consistency is hovering right around his usual spot in terms of points.
Andrei Svechnikov – Goal and an assist with two shots. This is the Svechnikov that most people anticipated when he was drafted. Sometimes, you get punished for not being patient enough. I never doubted the talent, but I didn’t see Rod finally giving Svech the minutes he deserved.
Sidney Crosby – Goal and an assist with four shots, as did Jake Guentzel. They’re getting overshadowed, but Crosby and Guentzel are doing their usual damage.
Carter Hart – 23 saves on 24 shots in the 3-1 win over the Isles. Nice to see Hart get back on track. The team in front of him is quite a mess, but I still would be holding him.
Kevin Hayes – Two goals on three shots, both assisted by Lukas Sedlak. Hayes remains a hold giving him all he can handle, while Sedlak is still only a bottom end streamer from me until we see some more production on a regular basis.
Matt Duchene – Two assists with three shots. I actually don’t think he’s an auto hold anymore, but I still lean towards that side of things instead of elite streamer.
Juuse Saros – 34 saves on 35 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Ducks. Saros is slowly but surely getting his numbers back towards last season’s. I assume the buy low window closed, but if not, I absolutely would.
Connor Hellebuyck – 40 save shutout in the 5-0 win over the Avalanche. My bold prediction of Hellebuyck winning the Vezina (he was 20-1 preseason) is off to a great start. It’s great to see him back at this level.
Blake Wheeler – Hat trick and an assist with four shots. The new top line for Winnipeg exploded with Cole Perfetti dishing three assists and Mark Scheifele adding a goal and two assists of his own. Wheeler is back on PP1 which puts him on the fringe. I’d hold for now though while he’s on fire. Perfetti is a middling streamer with upside from there, but the lack of PP time hurts. Huge fan long term though.
Dillon Dube – Goal and two assists. I thought we could see Dube take a big step forward this season, but it hasn’t happened yet. He’s a middling streamer at best.
Jonathan Huberdeau – Goal and an assist with three shots. It’s been a massive struggle for Huberdeau, but I still find it hard to believe that he won’t turn it around. If I had him, I’d continue to be patient.
Tyler Toffoli – Goal and an assist. Firmly an elite streamer.
Noah Hanifin – Two assists with a shot. He’s starting to show signs with eight points in the last ten games. I think I would be willing to hold him again.
Andrew Mangiapane – Goal and an assist. Last season is looking more and more like a huge outlier.
Rasmus Andersson – Goal and an assist with two shots. Andersson is a bit ahead of last season’s 4+46 pace, although his plus-minus has crashed down like everyone on Calgary.
Darcy Kuemper – 31 saves on 32 shots to win 5-1 over the Canucks. Kuemper is getting his numbers back into #1 goalie territory. I’m bullish going forward.
Alex Ovechkin -Two goals on five shots. He now has the most goals scored on the road in NHL history. Absolutely bonkers stat as he’s still 101 away from Gretzky’s total.
Anthony Mantha – Goal and an assist with two shots. There’s deep league value, but Mantha is a long way from getting back to his Detroit levels.
Jordan Eberle – Four assists. This game was 8-6 after two and the Kraken won 9-8. I’d have started the post with the game, but I already had it written waiting for this game to end and it was insanity. I’m not going to go through every guy, but Eberle is on a big heater and this game notwithstanding, his shot rate is up a lot lately. He’s an elite streamer pretty much on the fringe.
Justin Schultz – Three assists. It’s unfortunate that he’s bad at hits and mediocre at blocks, but he’s doing enough to be a hold in standard leagues.
Daniel Sprong – Goal and an assist with four shots. His points per 60 is off the charts. Give him more ice time!
Matty Beniers – Two goals on six shots. Huge heater for Beniers with 10 points in his last five games. A few more games like this with six shots on goal and we’re looking at a solid hold even with zero PIM.
Kevin Fiala – Four assists with four shots. The shot rate is down quite a bit from last season, but Fiala has still been quite good to this point. I’m still fully in.
Drew Doughty – Three assists. Even with his massive role, he’s barely a hold in 10’ers and he’s still towards the bottom end in 12’ers.
Three Point Challenge: We’re going to do it for Thursday’s games. You can’t select McDavid, Robertson, Kucherov, Draisaitl, Pastrnak, Karlsson, Crosby, Rantanen, M. Tkachuk, MacKinnon, Thompson, or Marner. I’ll go with Kaprizov against the Oilers.
That’s all for now guys. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. I’ll be back on Friday recapping the action of the next two nights. As a heads up, it might come out a little later on Friday with the Bills playing Thursday night, I’ll have to catch up on the action outside of Sabres-Avalanche once that game ends, which will obviously be late EST. Thanks for reading, take care!
