My bullishness of Wyatt Johnston as a hockey player is well known in these parts. The 20 year old has the makings of a future stud in both regular hockey and for fantasy. Right now, he's been given the best opportunity early in his career, and he's taking full advantage of it. Johnston was bumped onto the first line with Dallas' two best forwards, Robertson and Hintz, and Johnston has been excellent since the change. Robertson totaled three assists, four shots and two PIM in the 5-4 win over the Red Wings on Tuesday. Johnston has seven points in his last five games while averaging over three shots per game. The new change is enough to put Johnston on the fringe, and with Dallas closing the week with Anaheim and Washington, I would definitely be targeting Johnston for the bottom of my roster. Let's take a look at what else happened on Tuesday night:
The Blues are in the middle of a brutal schedule, playing three back-to-backs in a row, including four games in six days. They pulled off the first back-to-back through Alberta before going to Vancouver on Monday. There, Jordan Kyrou stole the show. Kyrou scored a hat trick on five shots while adding an assist in the 5-1 win, giving him 10 points in his previous four games. Unfortunately for Kyrou, he was injured late in the game and missed Tuesday's debacle against the Kraken with a UBI. It's unclear how serious it is, but I do find it a bit encouraging that the news that he was out came later on Tuesday instead of immediately after the game Monday or early Tuesday. With only one game over the next week, let's hope that he misses minimal time while he's on a heater. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
For those that didn't see part one of my recap of the trade deadline, you can read it here. I'm going to get right into Part Two below. And away, we go!
Arizona acquires the right to Jack McBain from Minnesota for a second round pick. All indications were that McBain wasn't going to sign in Minnesota so the Wild tried to get something for his rights. I assume Arizona will do him the favor of burning a year off his ELC for him to sign. There's some upside here long term, but nothing for now.
Remember a month ago when it was a foregone conclusion J.T. Miller was going to get traded? It sure seems like he played the Canucks into close enough contention that it’s no longer a consideration. Please, blog, may I have some more?
There was plenty of craziness on Thursday night, but the Detroit-Tampa game takes the cake. The Red Wings took the lead 6-3 in the third on the back of four, count them four, Tyler Bertuzzi goals, only to blow the game and lose in overtime 7-6. Bertuzzi looks to be a solid streamer, but it's going to take a lot more to hold him. He's been inconsistent in the past, and he's unvaccinated. That means he won't be able to play any games in Canada. The Red Wings already have a one off in Montreal next Saturday and another game in Toronto the week after. It's simply too hard to hold a player that's missing games for something other than an injury. Let's take a look at what else happened on the ice on Thursday night:
Mika Zibanejad was looking like the biggest bust of this season near the halfway point. Well, it's changing pretty quickly and amazingly, it wasn't the Sabres that turned it around. Last week, Zibanejad had three goals and three assists against the Flyers. It was so fun that he did it again eight days later! On Thursday, Zibanejad doubled down with his second natural hat trick and six point game in rapid succession against Philadelphia in the 8-3 win. That brings him up to 10+16 in 32 games, not exactly lighting the world on fire, but within reason. He's still over three shots per game, so while a repeat top 20 season is out of play, a top 50 season is still within reason. As I said at the time, Zibanejad is prone to huge hot streaks, and I think 17 points in 7 games qualifies. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
The Ducks season has gone very poorly. Not Sabres poorly, but still, the results have been extremely disappointing. The good news is that their young players have shown some flashes of what can be in the future, and on Thursday night, their two cornerstones scored their first career goals. Trevor Zegras scored in his 11th career game while Jamie Drysdale scored in his first. For this season, we shouldn't expect much from either. At the moment, Zegras is a bottom end streamer, while Drysdale should be left on the waiver wire until we see how much he plays, or if he even stays on the Ducks. In dynasties, there's a ton to like for both. Zegras has the chance to be one of the best playmakers in the league who scores plenty of goals for himself. Drysdale doesn't have massive offensive upside, but he should be good enough in all facets of the game, including quarterbacking the power play, that he ends up as a #2 fantasy defenseman while playing top pair minutes for the Ducks. It may be bleak now, but the future is bright in SoCal. Let's take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
With only one game on the slate on Monday, I'll be completing my hold/stream list today. For the Central and West divisions, you can find that here. I'll be back on Wednesday doing daily notes once again. Let's get to the list!
NORTH DIVISION
CALGARY FLAMES
Hold: Gaudreau, Lindholm, Monahan, Tkachuk, Andersson, Giordano
Stream: Backlund, Dube
For one night at least, the hype was real. We've been hearing about Kirill Kaprizov for a few years now and his long awaited NHL debut couldn't have gone any better. Kaprizov scored the game winning goal in overtime, finishing with an additional two assists and two shots on goal with a +3 rating in 21:52. Cheers to all of you who have been sitting on him in dynasties and everyone who took him in DFS while he was still incredibly underpriced. The first eight games for the Wild are against the three California teams so I'm expecting a big start from Kaprizov. I'd have to say he's the Calder favorite if Evason is going to play him over 20 minutes in his first game. Let's take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
Who had Noel Acciari scoring seven goals in one week this season? Alright, who had Acciari scoring more than seven goals this season? After Acciari scored a hat trick last Monday against the Senators, Acciari managed to follow it up with another hat trick plus an assist against the Stars on Friday. Acciari scored again on Saturday against Carolina completing one of the craziest weeks we've ever seen from a depth hockey player. So should we care? Probably, yes. He's playing with Jonathan Huberdeau who is piling up assists looking to feed Acciari at the moment. The problem is that Acciari isn't getting power play time yet, but he could get PP2 time sooner than later. However, he still played over 17 minutes last game without the power play time which is enough to have value. He's the epitome of a hot schmotato so I would look to stream him against Tampa on Monday and carrying that into Saturday's game against Detroit. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
We've seen this story before. Last year, upper management called out Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin for poor play. This year, it was Jim Montgomery. Benn had one goal through 20 games, but he now has three over the last two games. Benn scored two goals and an assist with five shots and two PIM in the 6-1 win over the Canucks. This came after a goal and an assist on four shots against the Oilers. He wasn't going to shoot 2% forever, but Benn did not look good over the first six weeks of the season. That said, we've seen a big hot streak from him before so there is hope he can do it again. The schedule looks fairly good over the short term so I'm expecting Benn to turn this nice stretch into a hot streak. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
The day has come! The NHL Season starts today! I'll be waiting for daily notes until Friday since there are only four games tonight, but for this post I'm going to write about what I'm looking for from each team in their opening game. Yes, some teams don't start until Friday, but we're covering all 31 of them here. Let's get to it!
