I hope that all Razzballers had a great festive period! It’s time for an updated hold/stream list, so I’m going to get right to it!
ANAHEIM DUCKS
Hold: Getzlaf, Gibson, Fowler
Stream: Rakell, Silfverberg, Lindholm, Kase
Rickard Rakell is right on the fringe, but he has missed the last three games. He’s not good enough that he’s a must hold, so I cut him on one of my teams. I will probably look to stream him when he returns, but if someone else picks him up, it’s not the end of the world. Cam Fowler is super boring but he’s doing just enough to be a bottom end hold.
ARIZONA COYOTES
Hold: Hall, Kessel, Keller, Schmaltz, Raanta, Kuemper
Stream: Dvorak, Chychrun, OEL
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jakob Chychrun are viable holds depending on team builds. I slightly prefer OEL because he’s had bad shooting luck while Chychrun has been fortunate, but I don’t mind gambling on Chychrun’s upside.
BOSTON BRUINS
Hold: Pastrnak, Marchand, Bergeron, Krug, Rask
Stream: Krejci, Halak
Torey Krug is on IR and we haven’t received much of an update on his health. Throw him on IR for now, but if you’re in a numbers crunch, I’d probably hold out for a couple days until we get an update. David Krejci stopped shooting lately so he’s back to streaming.
BUFFALO SABRES
Hold: Eichel, Olofsson, Reinhart, Dahlin, Ullmark, Skinner
Stream: Ristolainen
Jeff Skinner is out for 3-4 weeks depleting an extremely thin forwards corps. This team is a mess right now outside of the top guys.
CALGARY FLAMES
Hold: Tkachuk, Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm, Giordano, Rittich
Stream: None
Very straight-forward, nothing really to see here.
CAROLINA HURRICANES
Hold: Aho, Teravainen, Svechnikov, Hamilton, Slavin, Mrazek
Stream: Niederreiter
Nino Niederreiter has been reunited with Aho and Teravainen making him as good of a streamer as anybody right now. The minutes aren’t as high as I would hope for, but he does have a point in four straight.
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
Hold: Kane, DeBrincat, Toews, Lehner
Stream: Strome, Kubalik, Gustafsson
Chicago is shuffling their lines constantly which is hurting Dylan Strome. For now, he’s in that Krejci category where he can be a hold based on team needs but it’s far from automatic.
COLORADO AVALANCHE
Hold: MacKinnon, Landeskog, Rantanen, Kadri, Makar, Grubauer
Stream: Burakovsky, Donskoi
Very straight-forward team now that they are healthy.
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
Hold: Dubois, Werenski, Jones, Korpisalo
Stream: Nyquist, Bjorkstrand, Atkinson
Credit to Joonas Korpisalo to working his way into a hold. However, he did leave the game during the shooting on Sunday leading to an epic Torts rant that everyone has to see. Here’s to hoping it’s not serious. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Cam Atkinson are both guys worthy of your IR spots, but they aren’t worth holding if you don’t have them.
DALLAS STARS
Hold: Seguin, Radulov, Heiskanen, Bishop
Stream: Benn, Klingberg, Pavelski, Khudobin
It’s reached the point where it’s simply not worth holding Jamie Benn or John Klingberg anymore. They’ve shown no sign of turning things around. Obviously they’re talented enough for that to change, but we’re to the halfway point of the season. It’s time to look elsewhere.
DETROIT RED WINGS
Hold: Larkin, Bertuzzi, Mantha, Hronek
Stream: Fabbri
Honestly, I don’t feel good about holding even those guys because of the plus-minus, but they’re doing enough in terms of the other categories that they’re probably worth sucking it up for. Boy, this team is horrific.
EDMONTON OILERS
Hold: McDavid, Draisaitl, Klefbom, Koskinen
Stream: Neal, Nurse, Kassian, RNH
The first three of those streamers can all be held based on team needs.
FLORIDA PANTHERS
Hold: Barkov, Dadonov, Huberdeau, Hoffman, Ekblad, Yandle, Bobrovsky
Stream: Acciari, Connolly, Vatrano
Straight-forward team here, especially now that Barkov, Dadonov, and Huberdeau have been reunited.
LOS ANGELES KINGS
Hold: Kopitar, Doughty
Stream: Carter, Toffoli, Brown
I feel better about streaming Tyler Toffoli now that he’s playing with Kopitar. That said, this is another team I generally don’t want to be using players from.
MINNESOTA WILD
Hold: Suter, Staal
Stream: Parise, Zuccarello
This team is a mess. I can’t believe how much Mathew Dumba has fallen off; he’s closing in on worthless for fantasy.
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Hold: Gallagher, Domi, Tatar, Weber, Petry, Price
Stream: Danault
Another easy team for me. Phillip Danault is another guy in the Krejci/Strome group. It’s a shame that Joel Armia suffered an injury that left him week-to-week as he was playing the best hockey of his career.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
Hold: Forsberg, Duchene, Arvidsson, Josi, Ellis, Ekholm, Rinne, Saros
Stream: Johansen, Jarnkrok, Granlund
Nashville is an extremely difficult team to gauge. Forsberg, Arvidsson, the defensemen, and Rinne are the only guys I feel confident about. Matt Duchene looked terrific against Pittsburgh in his last game. I may be putting too much stock into that, but it’s nudging me towards hold. I’m still being stubborn with Juuse Saros but I’m fine with letting him go. Same goes with my stance on Ryan Johansen.
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
Hold: Palmieri
Stream: Hischier, Hughes, Gusev, Vatanen
Man, there are some truly awful teams right now. In terms of fantasy, the Devils are approaching a wasteland. As much as I like the talent of both of those #1 overall picks, it’s hard to want to use them for this season.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS
Hold: Barzal, Nelson, Pulock, Varlamov, Greiss
Stream: Lee, Beauvillier, Bailey, Eberle, Brassard
Their goalies have had a rough stretch lately, especially Thomas Greiss, but I see no reason to panic. I’m sure Trotz will get them back to playing boring hockey sooner than later.
NEW YORK RANGERS
Hold: Panarin, Zibanejad, Strome, Kreider, Trouba, DeAngelo
Stream: Buchenvich, Kakko, Fox, Lundqvist, Georgiev
This has worked into itself being pretty clear at the moment. Chris Kreider is on a roll and is getting big minutes so that’s shifting him into a hold for me. On the other end, Kappo Kakko simply hasn’t been good enough to be worth holding anymore.
OTTAWA SENATORS
Hold: Pageau, Tkachuk, Duclair, Chabot
Stream: Namestnikov, C. Brown, Ennis, Tierney
It’s a lot of bottom end streamers, but guys worth considering in a pinch. With Anders Nilsson down due to a concussion, I don’t have any interest in using a Sens goalie.
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
Hold: Giroux, Couturier, Konecny, Provorov, Hart
Stream: Voracek, JVR, Hayes
As I talked about recently, Jakub Voracek‘s drop in shot rate puts him in the AAGNOF group even though he’s not a center. That said, I prefer him the most of those guys while he’s playing with Couturier.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Hold: Malkin, Crosby, Guentzel, Rust, Letang, Murray, Jarry
Stream: McCann, Hornqvist
Easy one for me. I suppose the debate is for goaltending, but Tristan Jarry is rolling and the upside for Matt Murray is too high to cut bait yet.
SAN JOSE SHARKS
Hold: Kane, Couture, Hertl, Meier, Burns, Karlsson
Stream: Labanc
I bumped Timo Meier back to a hold off his hat trick just to see if he can turn the tide and get back on track. He was a top 50 player last season and I’m not ruling him out going on a big run. However, I’m skeptical of this entire team as they appear to simply be mediocre.
ST. LOUIS BLUES
Hold: O’Reilly, Perron, Schenn, Schwartz, Pietrangelo, Binnington
Stream: Thomas
No hard decisions here. Jaden Schwartz is one of the biggest risers over the last few weeks. Ten points in the last five games solidified Schwartz as a hold.
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
Hold: Kucherov, Stamkos, Point, Killorn, Hedman, Vasilevskiy
Stream: Palat, Cirelli, Shattenkirk, Sergachev
Kevin Shattenkirk has really slowed down after a fast start. It’s enough for me to drop him to a streamer, but I’m okay with holding him. Alex Killorn is getting massive minutes right now. That includes time on the first power play unit so he should be held everywhere for the time being.
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Hold: Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Nylander, Rielly, Barrie, Andersen
Stream: Kapanen, Hyman
This is another easy one. Tyson Barrie has been revitalized under Keefe to the point where he’s an easy hold. It’s a shame that Ilya Mikheyev suffered a brutal injury to his wrist (he was cut by a skate) as his rookie season was going strong.
VANCOUVER CANUCKS
Hold: Pettersson, Boeser, Miller, Horvat, Hughes, Edler, Markstrom
Stream: Pearson, Virtanen, Demko
Simple one. “The Cannon” Jake Virtanen is on fire right now which is enough to include him in the streamer category.
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Hold: Stone, Pacioretty, Marchessault, Karlsson, Smith, Theodore, Schmidt, Fleury
Stream: Stastny, Tuch, Stephenson
Nate Schmidt is right on the fringe after a hot start. I included Chandler Stephenson in here solely for deep leagues. Getting to play with Stone and Patches provides enough value there, even without the PP time.
WASHINGTON CAPITALS
Hold: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Vrana, Wilson, Oshie, Carlson, Holtby
Stream: Eller
I don’t feel great about including T.J. Oshie as a hold, but he’s probably doing just enough to be one. Tom Wilson fits too many team builds to be considered a streamer.
WINNIPEG JETS
Hold: Scheifele, Laine, Connor, Wheeler, Ehlers, Morrissey, Pionk, Hellebuyck
Stream: None
Trivial one to wrap things up.
We’ll be doing the Three Point Challenge for Tuesday’s Games. Reminder that you can’t take anyone in the Top 10 in points, so no McDavid, Draisaitl, Marchand, Pastrnak, MacKinnon, Panarin, Eichel, Carlson, Huberdeau, or P. Kane. I will take Zibanejad against the Oilers.
That’s all for now guys. We’re going to have a bit of a different schedule this week because of New Years. My next post is going to be on Thursday morning since the only game on Wednesday is the Winter Classic. Then, I will have another post on Friday right away. As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Enjoy New Years Eve, take care!
