You can do all of the right things building your fantasy team, but sometimes injuries torpedo the work that you've done. In the second week of the season, we've lost a superstar for the season. Igor Shesterkin suffered a horrible injury on Friday night against the Capitals, with the Rangers announcing that he's out for the season. It's just brutal for Igor and the Rangers, who were off to a great start. So what should his fantasy owners do in order to try and salvage their goaltending? We know the options aren't going to be good off the waiver wire, and it's only worse if you're in a situation like me, where in a dynasty, I've had Igor and Hellebuyck for a long time. My first priority was to grab Dylan Garand, and I'd advise the same for everyone. Garand is a solid prospect in his own right, and he's played admirably so far. Garand had a shutout in his first game, allowed one goal on 12 shots in relief of Igor, and then saved 19 of 21 shots in the 6-2 win against the Canucks on Sunday. The Rangers are playing great defensively, so he would the first guy I target off the wire. If you have IR spots, you could stash Joonas Korpisalo, who will be out for another month, but the Rangers paid big money for some reason to sign him this summer. There's always the possibility of a trade, but for now, I suspect that they'll see what Garand can do before making any big move. If you missed the boat on Garand, then you could roll the dice on Fowler, Levi, or maybe someone who was dropped already. Don't forget that goalies are voodoo, so anything can change quickly. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
We wrap up my forward rankings with the rest of the Top 100. If you missed the Top 80, you can find that here. My plan is to start the defensemen rankings this week, if not go through all of the top 40. I will try to get through goaltending and all of my Top 200 by the middle of next week. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below.
There are a couple teams making surprising runs to get back into the playoff race. The most surprising to me, by far, is the Flyers. In a huge showdown with Detroit on Saturday, the Flyers stomped them early and held on for the win. Owen Tippett stole the show with a hat trick and an assist with seven shots. He had two shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Stars, putting Philly two points out of the playoffs, albeit losing the tiebreaker to every team in front of them. Philly has a bunch of games this week against their direct competition, so expect Tocchet to lean on their studs. There are only two games on Friday, so Tippett has a real case to be held. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Thanks to Gary Bettman, the favorite to win the Pacific Division bracket isn't even a team in the Pacific Division. Sure, this is a hot take, but give me the Utah Mammoth over any other team in the Pacific to make the final four assuming Utah is the first wild card team. On Sunday, the Mammoth beat the Kings in overtime, with Lawson Crouse leading the way with two goals, an assist, five shots, three hits, and two blocks in almost 18 minutes of ice time. Crouse has been on the first line for an extended period now and continues to deliver. In hits leagues, I would hold him almost everywhere. In non-hits leagues, he's an elite streamer. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
We're very accustomed to Vegas making a big trade every season at this point. Surprisingly, we got their big move on Sunday already. Since they were willing to acquire Rasmus Andersson without a contract extension, the Flames sent him to the desert, acquiring Zach Whitecloud, a first round pick, a second round pick (turns to another first if Vegas wins the Cup), and a prospect that projects to be an AHL'er. It's a good return for Calgary, taking advantage of Andersson bouncing back from a dreadful 24-25 season. For Vegas, the fit is kind of weird to me. It's a team that doesn't even play a forward on their top power play unit, so are they really going to jam Andersson with Theodore on the second unit? Probably to make him happy, at least with their current injuries, but I don't see a lot of gain there. Scoring goals hasn't been a problem, and Andersson has still been bad defensively. He should play with Hanifin which maybe helps a bit? Overall, I think this is a net negative for Andersson's fantasy value, but I'm still holding him for the time being to see how it looks for the next couple weeks. For Calgary, Weegar takes over the top power play unit by default. He's on the fringe. Whitecloud could gain some deep league value. My assumption is he gets a top four role, and with that, some quality hits and blocks. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
The Utah Mammoth have been struggling lately, with four consecutive losses and only two wins in their last ten. They snapped that streak in a big way on Wednesday, winning 7-0 in Anaheim. Leading the charge for Utah was J.J. Peterka, their big offeseason acquisition. Peterka scored two goals and two assists with six shots. It hasn't been the best start in Utah for Peterka, who was down on the third line for a couple weeks recently. Besides the obvious of it being a big game, this was notable for Peterka for a couple reasons. One, he was on the first line with Keller and Schmaltz. That's always a help. The other big boost is that Peterka was on the first power play unit. One of his goals came with the top unit. The Utah power play has been atrocious for the last few weeks, so it wouldn't surprise me if Peterka gets an extended look there. The goals have been there, but that's because of a high shooting percentage. The assists have also dried up significantly compared to where they were in Buffalo. My hope is this boost in role can cancel out the inevitable shooting regression, which can get Peterka back into clear hold territory. For now, Peterka belongs on the fringe, although I lean towards bottom end hold for the upside. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
The greatest goal scorer added himself to another list on Thursday: players who scored a hat trick at age 40 or above. He became the sixth person ever to do that, joining Jagr, Howe, Selanne, Bucyk, and... Lidstrom! You could have given me 100 guesses, and I'm sure I'd have gotten the first three, and probaly Buyck, but never Lidstrom. Anyways, Ovechkin scored only two goals in his first 12 games, but since then, he has seven in the past six. Add in three assists, and we've seen Ovechkin get back on track lately. An ugly start is now a thing of the past, and while I still think a repeat of last season is too farfetched, a monster season is possible again. MarmosDad covered the early part of the week here, so please check that out if you haven't. Now, it's time for me to recap Thursday night after a depressing Bills loss (fire McDermott!):
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
I’m back again this week with another Divisional Preview.
Last week, we checked in on the Atlantic Division. If you missed it, you can open that up here.
This week, we’re headed to the Big City to check out the Metropolitan Division.
Can the Capitals charge their way to another divisional title?
Is Jet Greaves going to leave Elvis Merzlikins “All Shook Up” in the Blue Jackets’ crease?
What the heck are we supposed to call Sid “The Kid” Crosby now that he’s 38 years old?!
I might not answer all of these burning questions today, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be checking out the goods in...
This post is going to be a long one, so I'm going to cut right to the chase. Today, we're going to look at the Top 40 forwards. The top 16 were covered in my Top 20, which you can read here. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please leave them below. Let's get to it!
It was typical Team Canada to leave Thomas Harley off their team in the first place for an aging Doughty, but at the end of the day, Harley ended up playing and playing extremely well. He's carried that over to the Stars, where he's filling the void left by Heiskanen's injury and then some. Harley had a goal and an assist with two shots on Tuesday, giving him three straight multi-point games, and bringing him to 14 points in 11 games since Heiskanen went down. The shot rate is holding him back a bit, but Harley has a real chance to be a borderline top ten defenseman the rest of the way. He's been doing well at even strength all season, and the Stars power play is starting to get going. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Everything looks minor compared to the Luka Doncic trade, but there were four hockey trades over the weekend that were all notable. Two have fairly big fantasy repercussions, one gives some potential upside with changes of scenery, and the other could have some tertiary impact. For the second time because of trades, I had to scrap my hold/stream list. I'm going to hold off on that until the Four Nations break now. I also plan to have my Playoff Manifesto come out over that time. For today, let's talk about those trades in the order they occurred:
It's not too often that a player scores four points in a game. It's even less often that it happens in a losing effort. On Monday, J.T. Miller scored two goals and two assists with three shots, only for the Canucks to lose to the red hot Canadiens 5-4 in overtime. The ongoing speculation around Miller and Pettersson is rampant, and you have to think it's taking a toll on both of them. Reports are that the Rangers were interested in getting him back, but it never reached the point where Zibanejad was asked to waive his no trade because the Canucks didn't want to make a move around those two. At the end of the day, it hasn't been Miller's best season, but he's sitting at a point per game. That shows how high his floor is, despite his shot rate really dropping. Perhaps we see a surge from him now that Quinn Hughes (2A, SOG) is back as well. I was asked about Miller in the comments recently, and I didn't think perception was that Miller's value is down quite a bit. I'd certainly lean towards the buy low side than trading to move Miller if I owned him. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
