The Chicago Blackhawks are in last place in their division for the first time in what seems like an eternity. They are lacking in the scoring department in a big way. There's one easily move that Joel Quenneville can make to help their cause: play Alex DeBrincat more. The 20 year old scored his second hat trick of the season on Thursday while adding an assist. He's now tied for third on the team in points and second in goals. However, on a per-minute basis, he scores more goals than anyone on the team by a country mile and he's incredibly close to Kane in points per minute. DeBrincat is averaging under 15 minutes per game on the season and to be blunt, that makes no sense to me. The Blackhawks aren't completely dead in the water, especially if Corey Crawford eventually returns (it's been reported that he could return to the ice "soon"). Either way though, getting DeBrincat more ice time helps the team now and helps his development. He's playing at a 28 goal pace with bottom six ice time! DeBrincat is an elite streamer in 12'ers right now but if his minutes increase as they should, I would bet he becomes a hold down the stretch. Let's take a look at what happened in the NHL over the last two nights:
Hey, everyone.
I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, wonderful time with family and friends, and solid New Year’s Eve plans lined up. Your extended-play streamer column is here, albeit a little reduced due to the holidays. We’re on the downhill stretch for most fantasy seasons, and for most leagues this is a short week.
As you might know by now, my managing style and what I discuss in my advice column is maximizing games played and putting more skaters on the ice that your opponent. I don’t have access to my desktop right now, but the abbreviated version of what I want to reiterate every thread is this:
Aleksander Barkov is in a dead heat with McJesus for the most time on ice per game as a forward in the NHL. Barkov has been making those minutes count in October and he continued to do so on Monday. Barkov finished the month with a bang scoring a goal and three assists with two shots against the Lightning. The bad news for Barkov is that his team was still electrocuted by the Lightning losing 8-5. The good news for us fantasy owners is that it doesn't affect us. Barkov has been outstanding and if these minutes last, a top 50 season is a near lock. Let's take a look at what else happened around the league on Monday night:
The Montreal Canadiens stormed out of the gates last season and never looked back en route to winning the Atlantic Division. They have a roster that seems like a random collection of players with no clear plan. They've gutted their blue line losing a good top 4 in the last year (Subban, Beaulieu, Sergachev, Markov) leaving themselves depending on Shea Weber far too much. Like last offseason, they made a massive trade in the summer, this time involving two young talents. This is a team who is getting the small things right but the big things wrong and that gives me significant concern going forward. Per usual, it's all on Carey Price's shoulders. Their fantasy assets for this season look to be limited but there are a few guys with elite potential and some intriguing guys for deeper leagues. Let's take a look at what Les Habitants are working with:
The Montreal Canadiens were poised to build on a terrific 2014-15 last year only for their season to end in November. They didn't know it at the time but the reigning Hart and Vezina winner Carey Price had his season end after only 12 games started. Most people expect the Canadiens to bounce back this year but after one of the worst trades in recent memory, it's all going to be on Price's shoulders. In my opinion, it'll take another all-world season just for Montreal to contend for the playoffs. Despite a flawed roster, they still have some interesting fantasy pieces so let's take a look!
