I was originally going to take Sidney Crosby for three points but realized I took him within the last two weeks. Then, I was going to take Bryan Rust, but thought it was too bold, so went with Matchbox Twenty. Of course Thomas had two points (more on him later), but the other two both had three points. The top line for Pitt was fantastic, with Crosby and Rust each having a goal and two assists in the 5-3 win over the Oilers. Their plus-minuses are quite ugly, but Crosby and Rust have been fantastic for fantasy purposes. Rust doesn't get the credit he deserves for playing like a star. Crosby moved into 9th on the all-time points list and is starting to make a case for being on the hockey Mount Rushmore. He's probably just outside it, but regardless, we can never take Crosby for granted. Both should be top 50 players for the rest of the season, with Crosby having a good chance to get inside the top 25. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
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:
On New Year's Eve, I watched the Leafs - Islanders game in entirety. In the midst of a rough stretch, Matthew Knies stood out. Despite staying off the scoresheet, he was buzzing throughout the game, putting five shots on net in over 20 minutes of ice time. After being a passive shooter for almost two months, Knies was gunning regularly, which was encouraging. It felt like a big game was on the horizon, but we didn't get a big game. We got a massive game. Knies had one of the games of the season so far, scoring a hat trick against the Bruins. That's not all though. Knies also had two assists, six shots on goal, two penalty minutes, and had a +6 rating in the 6-4 win. Wow. He followed that up with another goal against the Flyers on Sunday. The return of Matthews can only help Knies. He's locked into a large role at even strength, and while he's not on PP1, Knies has played his way onto the fringe of 12'ers. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Frustratingly, I'm still a bit under the weather after ten days, but today, we persevere. I'm going to look at ten different players that I'm buying for the second half of the season. Later in the week, I'm going to look at players that I'm selling. I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and had some time off to relax with your families. Let's get to it!
1) MacKenzie Blackwood - How is he still available in over 50% of leagues? In five starts with the Avalanche, Blackwood has four wins with a 1.82/.940. He's already been rewarded with a five year contract extension. We've seen Georgiev go on long tears with the Avalanche, and Blackwood has more talent than Georgiev does. The Avalanche are finally getting healthy, giving them the core of a good defensive team to go with all of their offense. Blackwood is a slam dunk top ten goalie for me the rest of the season. If you didn't grab him right away as I suggested, hopefully you're in a league where he's still on the waiver wire. Blackwood is must own everywhere.
Hi all, and welcome to week 12 of the NHL season. This is going to be a shorter article this week due to the awkward schedule created by the Christmas holiday.
Some points of note this week:
There are no games scheduled on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. This basically means that all game nights this week (i.e. Mon, Fri, Sat, Sun) are in effect “busy nights” as I like to call them.
Due to the above you will likely have very little roster room to work with because of the limited schedule. This makes streaming individual players on teams fairly ineffective this week.
Additionally, no team plays more than 3 games and only two teams play just a single game - Colorado and Seattle - so avoid these two if possible. If you’re rostering players from either of these two teams that you deem droppable then this is the one situation where I think streaming skaters from another team makes sense this week.
It's not even Christmas and Colorado has already traded away both of their goalies for replacements. They're the first team since the epic tank 2014-15 Sabres to even trade both of their opening night goalies. After swapping backups weeks ago, they made their big swing on Monday, acquiring MacKenzie Blackwood from the San Jose Sharks, sending Alexandar Georgiev the other way along with a pick and depth player. So what will Colorado be getting, and what's the fantasy impact?
It has to be a good feeling to kick your rival while they're down. This is the worst stretch that the Rangers have had in years, and the Devils caused them to have a big postgame discussion amongst the players and coaches. The Devils won 5-1 on Monday, with their best players leading the charge. Jesper Bratt had a goal and three assists, Jack Hughes had two goals and an assist with eight shots, while Dougie Hamilton had a goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. The most encouraging from a fantasy perspective was Jacob Markstrom, who saved 38 of 39 shots. He hasn't been a world beater, but Markstrom is up to the 6th goalie overall because of the elite wins and volume. The GAA is solid as well, and there's room to grow with the save percentage. I'm bullish on both goalies going forward, but Markstrom should keep getting 2/3rds of the starts with Allen getting the leftovers. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
We wrap up my goaltending rankings with tiers four and below. Not all 64 goalies that project to be in the NHL will be ranked. For the really bad teams, I will mention their starters but won't mention their backups. I also won't be ranking goalies I have no interest in streaming to start the season, or if the backup goaltending situation is unclear like with Reimer and Levi in Buffalo. If you missed part one, you can check the first three tiers and top 18 goalies here. Let's get to it!
"Laf has had the big breakout this season, it just hasn’t been noticed because he doesn’t get real power play time." And that's me quoting me from last week copying what Grey does! Well, I think people have taken notice of Alexis Lafreniere after Saturday. Lafreniere had three goals and two assists with four shots in the 8-5 win over the Coyotes, with Lafreniere finishing +4. That brings him up to 25 goals and 27 assists while pushing towards three shots per game. As discussed previously, the Rangers schedule is awful for the last two weeks in terms of fantasy hockey usage, so I'm probably not holding him. That said, Lafreniere has to be considered now. In dynasties, it's a great reminder that even for #1 overall picks, it sometimes takes time. Lafreniere is still only 22 years old (will turn 23 by the start of next season), so the best is still to come. Where he will be ranked next season is a tough question, but it should be pretty high. Even in his current role, he's on the fringe. If he takes a spot on the top PP unit, whether it's replacing somebody or one of their four forwards get injured, we could be looking at Lafreniere pushing a point per game. It's safe to say that the bust label can go away now.
Fantasy Hockey Weekly Newsletter: Week 18
Hello everyone. Welcome to the eighteenth edition of JOT This Down!
Keep the questions, comments, and concerns coming. I’ll be here all week to answer any and everything you may have.
Hello everyone. Welcome to the sixteenth edition of JOT This Down!
Keep the questions, comments, and concerns coming. I’ll be here all week to answer any and everything you may have.
It's been a disastrous season for the Wild, and it's hard to imagine them digging out of this hole. Monday was a lone bright spot, both for the team and their oldest player. The Wild beat the Islanders 5-0, with Marc-Andre Fleury posting a 21 save shutout. The win gave Fleury the second most wins in NHL history, passing Patrick Roy. It's been a very up and down career for Fleury. He was incredible in the 2008 playoffs getting Pittsburgh to the finals. His most iconic moment clinched the Cup the year after. There were a handful of years right after that where his poor play was the reason the Penguins were eliminated early in the playoffs. They won a Stanley Cup with him as the backup. He also saved them the next year when Murray struggled early in the playoffs to lead Pittsburgh to back-to-back cups. He carried Vegas to the Cup finals in their inaugural season. That's how I'm going to remember MAF. There were too many down years for him to be in that inner circle of all-time goalies, and his best generally wasn't among the current elite, as evidenced by him being a Vezina finalist once in 20 seasons. However, when he was at his best, it was incredible to watch, and that will put him in the Hockey Hall of Fame sooner than later. For this season, Gustavsson is back, so I expect them to split the games fairly evenly. He's a streamer in good matchups for now, but like most goalies, MAF can turn into a hold sooner than later, or be complete unusable. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
