Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
Matthew Knies (2 G, +1, 2 PIM, 4 SOG, 2 H) is one of the only bright spots shining on the sinking ship that is the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season. His second-period shorthanded goal was a thing of beauty. Knies intercepted a weak Bruins pass, pushed aside Mason Lohrei, who looked a lot less powerful than his 6’5” frame would suggest, like an empty paper plate, and threw a nifty head fake on Jeremy Swayman before roofing a nice lickety-split wrister over the netminder’s glove.
As much as this was a nice opportunity for the Bruins to pad their lead over Columbus, Montreal, and Detroit in the extremely tight playoff race, this tiny snapshot in time was an equally important reminder for Leaf fans that the team needs to do a lot of other “retooling or rebuilding” that DOES NOT involve trading their 23-year-old sniper.
Friday was one of the most eventful trade deadlines in my lifetime. It had plenty of quantity, and an unparalleled amount of quality moved. I'm going to note all of the trades that happened that carry any fantasy relevance, even for the deepest of leagues. Some of them will be irrelevant even in the deepest of leagues, but there will also be blockbusters to discuss. I will be going in the order that they happened, not in order of magnitude. And with that, let's get to it!
Florida Panthers acquire Vitek Vanecek from the San Jose Sharks for Patrick Giles.
Vanecek is the new backup in Florida with Knight in Chicago. He's starting on Saturday night and becomes a viable streamer every time he starts. Giles is AHL depth for San Jose.
A personal favorite, Filip Forsberg, took over the game on Tuesday night, scoring four goals in the 6-0 win over the Blue Jackets. That gives Forsberg 10 goals and 5 assists in 13 games. Not bad, not bad. The story is the same for Forsberg as it has been over the last five years. When he's on the ice, he's one of the best offensive players in the league. The problem is that he always seems to have an injury that causes him to miss a month. He's already missed eight games so fingers crossed that he stays healthy the rest of the way. His linemates (more on them later) have found their form as well giving Nashville a potent first line for the first time since Johansen was playing his best hockey and Arvidsson was at his peak goal scoring ability. He has a tough matchup with Boston on Thursday, but after that, Nashville has some easy opponents which could let Forsberg continue this goal scoring run. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Hey guys! Sven here, back with a new kind of article. I was asked to make a prospect list of some sort in addition to my “pipeline” analysis sprinkled into the team previews. This one will be a little different than most prospect information, as you’ve already heard so much about the Jack Hughes’, Kappo Kakko’s, and Cale Makar’s out there. Team by team, we’ll look at a few guys that may have an immediate impact and are up with the big club right now, guys we may see this season, and look at a couple bright spots down the road. Let’s kick it off, alphabetical order this time!
Hey guys! Sven here with our stop in San Jose for 31 in 31! Over the next month, I will be taking a look at each team’s players to watch out for going into the 2018-19 fantasy hockey season: The 31 in 31 daily segment. This analysis features everything from surefire studs, to sleepers, to prospects that may make an appearance at some point this season. Please let me know if you guys enjoy this type of material! Reminder that the stat totals are from last season.
