Remember when the Kraken took Vitek Vanecek in the expansion draft and then traded him right back to Washington? Imagine where Washington would be if they only had Samsonov. Vanecek had a 36 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Hurricanes. He missed some time recently, but Vanecek is approaching a 2.30/.920 line. He’s been miles better than Samsonov despite Samsonov winning at a much higher clip. Amazingly, Vanecek is still available in over 70% of leagues at the time of this writing. I’m not saying that he’s going to be a workhorse, but Vanecek will be splitting at the very least, and his numbers are clearly good enough to hold. This season has been quite encouraging for Vanecek’s long term prospects as well. He’s not a lock to be the Washington goalie of the future, but it’s certainly in play now. At the least, he looks the part of a capable tandem. Let’s take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Wednesday’s Games
Craig Anderson – 29 saves on 30 shots in the 5-1 win over the Maple Leafs. As a Sabres fan, it hurts to be terrible for so long, but it’s always fun to smash Toronto. Anderson has been decent enough to be a step above desperation.
Jeff Skinner – Goal and an assist with six shots. Skinner remains in the elite streamer department with his shot rate and goals.
Dylan Cozens – Two assists with two shots. It hasn’t been great, but Cozens is doing a lot of damage at even strength. Get him some linemates and Cozens will fit in perfectly. I’m still a fan for dynasties.
David Perron – Goal and an assist with four shots. Perron has bounced back now that he’s on the first line with Ryan O’Reilly (1+1, 3 SOG). I’ve been stubborn and held Perron through the downswing. I lean towards hold now but it’s close.
Artemi Panarin – Goal and two assists with two shots. It’s worse than last season, but Panarin is still well over a point per game. No reason to complain.
Adam Fox – Three assists with two shots. The points are even better than last season’s Norris winning campaign, mostly by piling up PPP. He’s a middling #1.
Ryan Strome – Goal and an assist with three shots. Strome is solid enough across the board to be an easy hold, even if it’s not exciting.
Arthur Kaliyev – Two goals on three shots. Kaliyev has an incredible shot but the minutes aren’t there right now to be fantasy relevant. In dynasties, Kaliyev could end up pretty great with the right playmakers on his line. Welcome to the Razzball Database!
Ryan Suter – Goal and an assist with four shots. Suter’s offense has dried up the last two seasons. I don’t see that changing at any point so there’s only a little value in the deepest of leagues.
Matt Duchene – Two goals on four shots. Duchene has completely turned his career around which is great to see. A career high in goals and points are both in play.
Roman Josi – Two assists with two shots. Josi is easily having the best fantasy season of his career, and that’s saying a lot. Monster performance with no reason to expect a dropoff.
Colin Blackwell – Goal and an assist with three shots. Okay player in the right situation like last year in NY, but it’s not right in Seattle.
Yanni Gourde – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Big fan of Gourde in real life, but in fantasy, it’s only worthy of being a middling streamer.
Thursday’s Games
Ryan Hartman – Two goals on six shots playing over 21 minutes. Hartman was on a big cold streak to drop him back to the fringe. I’ve held the whole time, but it’s closer than I expected it to be at any point during this season.
Kevin Fiala – Two assists with two shots. Fiala has really got going. No surprise because he does this every season. Easy hold in all formats.
Scott Laughton – Goal and an assist with two shots. Laughton has been solid over the last month, but he’s only a middling streamer at best.
Tristan Jarry – 20 saves on 21 shots in the 5-1 win over the Lightning. Jarry allowed 17 goals in 4 games before allowing one of the past two. The overall season numbers are excellent leaving Jarry as a #1.
Evgeni Malkin – Goal and two assists with six shots. Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby each had a goal and an assist. Not that we needed proof, but the top Penguins can go off in any spot. Always good to keep in mind for DFS when their ownership is very low.
Danton Heinen – Goal and an assist with three shots. Heinen is playing with Malkin at the moment which is enough to make him a middling streamer.
Conor Sheary – Two assists with two shots. Sheary is firmly in the middling to solid streamer territory depending on which line he’s on.
Sergei Bobrovsky – 18 save shutout in the 3-0 win over the Senators. Easy win for Bob as the Panthers throttled the Sens, but Forsberg stood on his head to keep it close. Bob has found his game again which is great to see.
Patric Hornqvist – Goal and an assist with six shots. He’s only getting fourth line minutes along with PP2 which keeps Hornqvist as a bottom end streamer. However, if there’s an injury, he sometimes slides to PP1 which is enough to make him an elite streamer.
Mason Marchment – Goal and an assist with two shots. Marchment has played some on the top line and some on the third. Now that he’s getting PP2 time, I’m leaning towards holding even if it seems somewhat fluky.
Quinn Hughes – Two assists with four shots. All your assists are belong to Hughes!
Evander Kane – Two goals on seven shots. Kane tied the game in the last minute and played over 22 minutes in this game. He went to the best spot possible for his fantasy value.
Leon Draisaitl – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. The goal race with Matthews is on.
Connor McDavid – Two assists with two shots playing almost 27 minutes. It still feels like McDavid is going to go on a monster run to be win the Art Ross with ease.
Patrick Kane – Goal and an assist with six shots. The goals are finally starting to come in for Kane, which felt like a matter of time given he’s pushing four shots per game. Even if it’s more PP heavy, Kane is still damn good.
Mike Hoffman – Goal and three assists with two shots and two PIM. Hoffman is a middling streamer because of his upside. I don’t see it getting a ton better given his linemates, but perhaps that changes.
Ben Chiarot – Two goals and an assist. It felt like an audition for Chiarot to boost his trade value. I have zero interest in fantasy and think whoever acquires him near the trade deadline is going to be vastly disappointed.
Nick Suzuki – Goal and two assists with six shots playing almost 24 minutes. Suzuki has been incredible since St. Louis went behind the bench. Clear hold in all formats.
Andrew Mangiapane – Goal and two assists with four shots. He’s back on the second line and was out there with the goalie pulled, making a fantastic assist. With a point in nine of his last nine games, Mangiapane is an easy hold at the moment.
Karel Vejmelka – 42 saves on 43 shots in the 2-1 win over the Avalanche. Vejmelka has had a bunch of monster performances this season which makes him a GPP dart in DFS. He could be a thing long term if the Coyotes ever get good again, but I have no interest in redrafts.
Craig Smith – Hat trick on four shots. Even though he went off in this game, I have no interest in using Smith while he’s on the third line. Now, if he goes back to the first line, that can change, although he did struggle there the last month before DeBrusk took the spot.
Trent Frederic – Three assists with three shots. Maybe something is here eventually, but not right now.
Erik Haula – Two assists with four shots and two PIM. Despite playing with David Pastrnak (two goals on seven shots), Haula is only a bottom end streamer.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back on Monday to recap the weekend’s action. Don’t forget to check out JKJ’s post for all of your streaming needs! As always, feel free to ask any questions, leave any comments, or give any suggestions below. Thanks for reading, take care!
Hi Viz! Should I sub in Nico Hischier at the Rangers today or stick with Pavelski at Winnipeg?
I’d stick with Pavelski. I know he’s struggling a bit with goals lately, but the assists are piling up. As long as there’s no surprises and Igor is in net, the implied goal total for the Stars will be higher than New Jersey’s too. The Rangers are kind of bad at even strength so I don’t think it’s crazy to play Hischier, but I’d still with the generally better player.
yeah next year i’ll either predraft trade for a goalie (i’ve got very good skaters, including additions of boldy/raymond in addition to what was already great skater keepers, keep 7 and i kept grubauer based on rankings/ADP stuff) but for now it’s murray/grubauer/ullmark (why BUF continues to keep UPL down when c.anderson has had (checking) one good season (and that was 16-17) in last 6 years i got no clue, i’m sure BUF fans are crazy on that one, to be fair to anderson he’s almost exclusively on bad teams), drop grubauer for recently dropped m.smith? standard goalie stats but added in goals against as a negative (4 min appearances per 7 day week). i’m still a top 4-6 (12 teamer) team due to non goalie parts of my roster. and i still often win goals against from benching these when possible. but never win wins, and almost never the ratios or shutouts. teams hoard goalies so much that i’ll probably be able to trade from my forward depth to somebody who’s got too many goalies to keep them.
could start streaming the grubauer spot (but only 44 moves left on year, that includes playoffs), somebody else recently dropped cal petersen (who i used to have, dropped for murray when murray started playing better, has continued that). others not owned are clear backups though: holtby, the MTL guys (yuck), the ARI guys (more yuck compared to MTL lately), raanta, the NJ guys (some others worse)
Panarin may be the most frustrating superstar to own in hockey. Why can’t he shoot the puck more? His points follow him when he takes shots. He just came off a 3 pt game but had a goose egg tonight and the put up 1 point over a 3 game stretch before that. Why? Because he had no shots.
yeah there was another one of those a few weeks back too, like no shots. he shows up most of the time, but it’s crazy to see 4 shot, 6 shot, 5 shot, zero, 1 in that order. it’s not like his minutes vary much in those games and if he’s hurt he ain’t missing time on that.
good night, this is like the 2nd time in the last week or 2 (there was a 3rd time too, but that one had an update early in the day saying he was game time decision so that’s fine) that zuccarello misses game, and it not announced till like 17-20 minutes before gametime. back before NHLPA got over being afraid of corona having to check lineups numerous times before every set of games was standard, but since jan 5th (or was it just new years) it isn’t. easy to ease up with rare losses on having to do that since then (outside of this kind of stuff). MIN get your shit together.
these could be completely on the player, could show up at practice, all indications he’s fine, but right before gametime he shows something or changes his mind.