I’ve felt that Thomas Greiss was underrated for years. When I started at Razzball, he was battling Halak for playing time and should have received more than he did. Last season, when I was fully buying in, he was a mess. This year, his value was so low that he was a nice gamble and he paid off handsomely. Greiss had a 31 save shutout on Thursday beating Columbus 3-0. Greiss is pushing a .930 save percentage and it’s deserved; he’s third in the league in goals saved about expectation. The bad news is that his teammate is #2 in that category. Look, Greiss isn’t going to get the majority of starts, right around half of the Isles remaining games. However, those starts are going to be extremely valuable. He’s only owned in 23% of leagues right now which is far too low. That reason alone is why I’m starting this post with Greiss. I’ve been saying for over a month that he should be owned in all formats, but if you’re lucky enough for him to still be on the wire, go and get him. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Matt Murray – 38 saves on 39 shots in the 3-1 win over the Oilers. Murray is en fuego right now. His numbers are working their way to respectability. He has the chance to be a massive difference maker down the stretch.
Jacob Markstrom – 20 saves on 21 shots as the tough luck loser in the 1-0 loss to Edmonton. He’s a slight step above desperation. This says more about the Ducks than Markstrom.
Kevin Boyle – 35 save shutout. Congrats to Boyle, but there’s no way in hell I would consider using a Ducks goalie. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Mike Hoffman – Goal and an assist. He’s slowed down big time but Hoffman still needs to be held. It will be interesting to see if Florida considers moving him at the deadline.
Josh Bailey – Goal and an assist with two shots. Bailey remains a solid streamer.
Casey Cizikas – Two goals on three shots. Somehow he has 15 goals; his previous career best is 9. This is a complete fluke. I’d only use Cizikas in deep leagues as a streamer.
Andreas Athanasiou – Two goals on three shots. I’m a big fan of Athanasiou’s game. He’s still only 24 so there’s a chance it gets better when he plays with better linemates. He’s a strong streamer for now.
Andrei Vasilevskiy – 32 save shutout in the 6-0 win over the Stars. He’s found a way to improve on last season’s breakout. Vas is easily the #1 goalie.
Nikita Kucherov – Goal and three assists with four shots. Kucherov already has 92 points. 92! Just an incredible season for Kuch who has established himself as the #1 player in fantasy.
Steven Stamkos – Two goals and an assist with six shots. Stamkos is having one of the quietest seasons ever that has him on pace for 45+50. Kucherov and Point are getting all the attention but Stammer has been excellent.
Ondrej Palat – Two assists. He’s on the first power play unit and second line right now which makes Palat an elite streamer again.
Alex Killorn – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM. Killorn is a middling streamer who provides much more value in deep leagues than as a streamer in standard ones.
Brayden Point – Two assists. I’ve run out of things to say about how I’m shocked at Point finding another level to his game.
Pekka Rinne – 34 saves on 35 shots in the 3-1 win over the Canadiens. The numbers are a steep drop from last season but Rinne remains a #1 goalie.
Matt Nieto – Two assists with a shot. And there’s your annual Nieto update!
Semyon Varlamov – 24 saves on 25 shots in the 4-1 win over the Jets. Varly has had a brutal season after his strong year in 2017-18. He’s firmly in the desperation category now.
Patrick Kane – Goal and two assists with three shots. Never thought Kane had a chance to top his 2015-16 but he’s on pace to blow it out of the water.
Artem Anisimov – Goal and an assist with two shots. Anisimov isn’t even a bottom end streamer at this point.
Brandon Saad – Goal and an assist with three shots. Saad is picking it up a bit but even that only gets him to average streamer level.
Jordan Binnington – 21 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Coyotes. It’s clearly his crease now in St. Louis making Binnigton must own everywhere. Hopefully you snagged him right away when I wrote a post following his first two games.
Vladimir Tarasenko – Two goals on three shots. Hotter than a pistol!
Joel Edmundson – Goal and an assist with two shots. Nice player in real life but Edmundson is near useless in fantasy.
Oskar Sundqvist – Two assists. Sundqvist doesn’t have the role to produce at a fantasy relevant level, and not sure he could even if he had the role.
Auston Matthews – Two goals and an assist with six shots. Already 100 goals for Matthews and he’s only 21. Sick.
Jake Muzzin – Two assists with three shots and two PIM. The fit in Toronto has been great. Easy hold in all formats.
Morgan Rielly – Goal and an assist with four shots. He keeps producing at a high level. Hopefully Rielly keeps the shot rate up.
Kasperi Kapanen – Two assists with three shots playing over 20 minutes. He’s back with Matthews at even strength making Kapanen a borderline hold. At the least, super elite streamer. Kapanen is a prime offer sheet target in the offseason.
Mitch Marner – Goal and an assist with four shots. He’s been rocking and rolling all season long.
Nicklas Backstrom – Two assists with a shot. Backstrom has been his usual steady self.
Alex Ovechkin – Goal and an assist with four shots. The Great Eight doing what he does. Amazing that he’s having his best season in years.
T.J. Oshie – Two goals and an assist with four shots. Oshie has really picked it up as of late to be a no-brainer hold instead of being on the fringe.
Jakub Vrana – Goal and an assist with two shots. Vrana is an above average streamer who is really boosting his value for dynasties. Really impressed by what I’ve seen this year.
Tom Wilson – Goal and an assist with two shots. Wilson’s scoring slowed down as expected but I still lean towards holding him.
Alec Martinez – Goal and an assist with three shots. It seems like forever ago that Martinez scored the OT goal in game 7 of the WCF and then winning the cup in OT. He’s nowhere near fantasy relevance.
Kyle Clifford – Two assists with three shots. I didn’t expect to write about Clifford twice in one week, but this is a fluke. Don’t even think about it in a super deep league.
Adam Gaudette – Goal and an assist with three shots. There’s some real upside here but we are nowhere near that point yet. Gaudette is waiver wire fodder.
Elias Pettersson – Goal and an assist with four shots. That’s three straight games with four shots which is exactly what we’ll need from Pettersson going forward if he’s going to turn into a true superstar in fantasy.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Monday recapping the action from the weekend. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
