At this point in the season, we’ve seen a ton of players bounce back from poor years in 2015-16. There are a couple guys in the forefront and one of them is Jakub Voracek. He went from 81 points to 55 (only 11 goals) in part to a dreadful first 20 games. Well, the people that bet on a return to his previous status are reaping massive dividends in the early going. In the 6-5 win over the Oilers Tuesday night, Voracek scored a goal and three assists with five shots. He’s now sitting on 28 points in 29 games; add in a 90 PIM and ~300 shot pace and Voracek looks like he’s on the verge of being a top 25 player again. Given the quality of the Flyers power play unit and his linemates, I don’t see Voracek slowing down. Shoutout to Veritas for picking him to get 3 points! Here’s what else happened over the last two nights:
Devan Dubynk – 35 saves on 37 shots in the 3-2 win over the Maple Leafs. Toronto played one of the best periods of the year in the third but Dubnyk stood on his head. After this game, he’s the #1 player on the season. It feels good to be right!
Jason Zucker – Goal on his only shot. Streamer success! He’s bottom end on the streaming radar at this point.
Eric Staal – Goal on two shots with two PIM. Staal has slowed down some but it’s still strong across the board.
Tuukka Rask – 16 saves on 20 shots in the 4-3 OT loss to the Capitals. Meh, Rask was due for a dud. He’s still the #3 goalie miles ahead of #4.
David Pastrnak – Goal on three shots Wednesday, two goals on four shots with four PIM Thursday. Your new league leader in goals, David Pastrnak. Well, he’s tied with Crosby (more on him later) but he’s only played 2 more games than Crosby. So good. And I ranked him highest by quite a bit.
Nicklas Backstrom – Goal on four shots. Man, I did not see this resurgence in shots coming but it’s terrific.
Evgeny Kuznetsov – Two assists. Again, no shots, but finally a point streak <fingers crossed>.
Justin Williams – Two goals on three shots. He’s fallen off a cliff this year to the point where he’s not even worth holding in 16’ers.
Mike Condon – 35 saves on 37 shots in the 4-2 win over the Sharks. Huge game from Condon but he’s purely in the “desperate for starts” category.
Erik Karlsson – Goal and two assists with two shots and two penalty minutes. He’s just remarkable night in and night out.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’s a decent deep league option given great blocks for a forward, solid hits and shorthanded points but it’s not 12’er worthy right now. It can become that, it was for stretches last year, but not right now.
Brent Burns – Goal on five shots. Brent Burns doing Brent Burns things!
Joe Pavelski – Assist with seven shots. His consistency is remarkable.
Joe Thornton – Assist with three shots. Holy hell, he put three shots on net!? Modern miracle.
Andrew Cogliano – Goal and an assist with two shots. Cogs is an okay streamer in 12’ers but he gest a big boost in value in deep leagues because he’s the current ironman in the league. It’s been over 10 years since he missed a game.
Ondrej Kase – Assist. He came completely off the radar as a 21 year old 7th round pick but he’s been explosive. There could be some dynasty value here.
Ryan Kesler – Goal and an assist with three shots. I still don’t understand how he’s doing but Kesler has been incredible.
Corey Perry – Goal and an assist with four shots. I think Perry makes an excellent trade target. The goals are down but that’s because of an unlucky shooting percentage and his assist rate is at a career high.
Jakob Silfverberg – Two assists with six shots. He’s played his way into a hold at this point.
Matt Duchene – Goal on three shots. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal on five shots. This is the truest two player team I’ve ever seen. Please let Gabriel Landeskog get back soon.
Calvin Pickard – 29 saves on 31 shots in the 4-2 road win over Boston. He’s coming off a rough start against Nashville but Pickard has been terrific on the whole. He really deserves to get more starts.
Robby Fabbri – Goal and an assist with three shots. He’s finally starting to come around. At this point, I would grab him if he’s available in 12’ers.
Anders Lee – Two goals. It’s been a big dud to this point for Lee but with five points in his last five games, I’m back to streaming him to see how things play out going forward. Perhaps the Islanders are truly turning things around right now?
Thomas Greiss – 24 saves on 26 shots in the 3-2 win over the Blues. It’s been solid all year for Greiss; I know Halak is off a shutout but Greiss is clearly the better goalie at this point.
Drake Caggiula – Assist with a shot. I talked about him the last podcast. Caggiula is worth streaming right now.
Leon Draisaitl – Goal and two assists. Reid and I predicted a hot streak and right now the heater is real. He now sits tied for 14th in the league in points.
Connor McDavid – Goal and an assist with three shots. It’s almost boring at this point when McJesus gets two points in a game.
Andrej Sekera – Goal and an assist with three shots. He played almost 27 minutes in this game and is currently on the first power play unit so I’d be fine with picking up Rej if you need help on the blue line.
Claude Giroux – Two goals and an assist with four shots. Finally! I got a Three Point Challenge pick right! For that, I thank you Mr. Giroux. He’s in a type with his linemate for 5th in the league in points.
Mark Streit – Goal and an assist with two shots. It’s bottom end right now so you can go either way with Streit.
Cory Schneider – 44 saves on 49 shots in the 5-2 loss in Montreal. It’s hard for a goalie to allow 5 goals and not bury your save percentage but there wasn’t much Schneider can do in this one. Shots were 49-21. Yikes. I still think he’s a reasonable buy low candidate.
Taylor Hall – Goal and an assist with three shots. So damn good.
Adam Henrique – Goal and an assist. He’s been okay but I think it gets better with Hall returning. Henrique is a decent flier to take.
Phillip Danault – Goal and an assist with three shots. I think Danault is a solid dynasty play; he’s finally coming into his own a bit. I don’t see tremendous upside but there is some hope.
Brendan Gallagher – Two assists with three shots. He’s gone through a rough patch mostly due to his lack of shots. Hopefully Gallagher gets back to previous shot volumes.
Torrey Mitchell – Two goals on four shots with two PIM. Scorey Mitchell doesn’t have much fantasy value but I do love the nickname Scorey.
Andrew Shaw – Two assists with four shots. He’s a reasonable hold if you need penalty minutes because he can contribute offensively or a great stream at the end of the week if you’re down in PIM.
Ryan Miller – 38 saves on 39 shots in the 5-1 win over Tampa. This was definitely a result that nobody saw coming. Miller is strictly in the “desperate for starts” category.
Erik Gudbranson – Goal and an assist. To say he is a disappointment of a #3 overall pick is polite to Gudbranson.
Jayson Megna – Two goals on three shots. Congrats to Megna being in the league right now because I honestly had no idea.
Jack Skille – Two goals. Skille doubled his point total from the first 19 games in this one, well done.
Ben Bishop – 16 saves on 20 shots through 2 periods before getting pulled. Man, he was on a hot streak before this one. I still believe in him turning it around.
Jonathan Drouin – Goal on two shots. I feel like he’s ready to take off. I hope it’s not indigestion…
Sidney Crosby – Goal and an assist with two shots. Like McDavid, it’s almost expected at this point.
Justin Schultz – Two assists, +3. We talked about him on the last podcast. I added Schultz in 12’ers and even some 10’ers to ride out this hot streak.
Conor Sheary – Goal and an assist with three shots. Streamer success! Sheary is still right on the edge of hold vs. stream and would let the rest of my roster and league rules in terms of adding players determine whether I held or not.
Scott Wilson – Two assists with two shots. Not much here outside of the deepest of leagues.
Matt Murray – 28 saves on 29 shots in the 5-1 win over Florida. He should run away with the job at this point, it’s not even a debate.
Keith Yandle – Assist with two shots and two PIM. Lucky break for his owners that his injury wasn’t more serious.
Aleksander Barkov – Assist with three shots and two PIM. Another point for Barkov, this time on the power play to Jaromir Jagr, as he starts to build some traction with points in 4 of 5.
Antti Raanta – 17 saves on 18 shots in the 2-1 win over the Jets. That’s 5 straight starts with 1 or 2 goals against for Raanta. He’s clearly worth streaming every time out.
Kevin Hayes – Goal on four shots. He’s been through a rough patch before this game but I’m still holding for a while longer.
Chris Kreider – Goal on three shots. It’s nice to see Kreider keep rolling despite his partner in crime Mika Zibanejad being out.
Dustin Byfuglien – Assist with three shots. Big Buff is crushing right now and I love every minute of it.
Mark Scheifele – Goal on two shots with two penalty minutes in his return from injury. Love to see him back rolling right away.
Viktor Arvidsson – Goal on five shots. Must own at this point with his shot volume.
Pekka Rinne – 14 saves on 18 saves in 26 minutes before getting pulled. Woof. He was due for a dud but hopefully this is just one game and now the start of a downswing.
Jamie Benn – Goal and two assists with two shots. My man! It feels like he’s been horrible but he’s at 24 points in 28 games. I would still bet on him getting to a point per game or better by the end of the season.
Antoine Roussel – Goal and an assist with three shots and four penalty minutes. The points have disappeared as expected but the penalty minutes are still incredible. Hold him if you need them.
Tyler Seguin – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. He’s back over a point per game; here’s to hoping he stays healthy.
Jason Spezza – Goal and two assists with three shots. The plus-minus has been a disaster but the points have been decent. That said, like Benn, I think it’s going to get better.
Kari Lehtonen – 34 saves on 36 shots in the 5-2 win over the Predators. I don’t have confidence in him but if you want to own a Stars goalie, Lehtonen is the clear option right now.
Chad Johnson – 27 saves on 28 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Coyotes. Like we said on the last podcast, it’s Chad Johnson’s world and we’re just living it in!
Johnny Gaudreau – Two assists with two shots. He’s been back for three games and has two points in each of them. That’s one way to erase the miserable start.
Dougie Hamilton – Goal on six shots. The points haven’t been great but the PIM and shots have been. On an aside, at what age does it become unacceptable to go by Dougie? Genuinely curious. I don’t think we are there at 23 years old but by the time he’s in his 30’s he has to go to Doug or Douglas.
Max Domi – Goal on three shots with seven penalty minutes before leaving the game with an upper body injury. It’s been a disappointing year to this point for Domi as he was on course to repeat or slightly fall short of his rookie campaign. That said, we never like to see injuries so hopefully it’s nothing serious and he can get on a heater.
Mike Smith – 33 saves on 35 shots in the loss. He bounced back from a dud against the Blackhawks but again it wasn’t enough. The save percentage is strong but the goals against is poor and the wins won’t be there with the Coyotes floundering.
Sebastian Aho – Goal and an assist with three shots Wednesday, 0’s across the board Thursday. He’s still only worth streaming although Aho remains a dynasty favorite in these parts.
Justin Faulk – Assist and seven shots, then assist with two shots. The plus-minus is horrific again but I do think a point streak is coming.
Derek Ryan – Assist with a shot, then two goals on two shots. Despite these games, there is no fantasy relevance here. He’s under a shot per game with no PIM.
Lee Stempniak – Two assists with six shots over two games. Solid streamer while he’s on the first line.
Teuvo Teravainen – Two goals on three shots with two PIM. He’s also firmly in the streaming category at the moment.
Brock McGinn – Goal and an assist with six shots and two PIM. Before Thursday, McGinn had 1 assist and 7 shots over 10 games. That’s all you need to know.
Cam Ward – 33 saves on 38 shots in the 6-5 SO loss to Anaheim, then 21 saves on 22 shots in the 3-1 win over the Kings. I still believe the bottom is going to fall out sooner rather than later but that doesn’t change the fact that Ward needs to be owned at the moment.
Drew Doughty – Goal on three shots. Doughty currently sits at 15th among defensemen in ESPN’s player rater which is basically spot on in terms of what to expect going forward.
Marian Gaborik – Assist with two shots for some more streamer success. Gabby is firmly in the streamer category at the moment.
Friday Streamers – Six games on the slate tonight. The best matchups are the Blackhawks hosting the Rangers and the Ducks hosting the Sharks. That said, I’m not looking to either of those games to stream. My main focus will be on Wild players against the Oilers and the Blues against the Devils. If the higher owned guys on these teams happen to be available in your league, go with them. Here are my top three options by my 20% or less standards:
Jason Zucker (7.7%) – Going back to the well here. The minutes are up and a home matchup against the Oilers, who traveled and are on the second of a back to back, is a great spot.
Brian Gionta (1.5%) – As a Sabres fan, I never thought I’d be suggesting Gionta. That said, the minutes are great right now and he’s tentatively slated to play with Okposo and O’Reilly.
Josh Anderson (2.9%) – Man, options are bare tonight. I’ll look to Anderson who is starting to get more minutes. That’s a strong chance for PIM contribution with an okay shot at a point against the Red Wings.
That’s all for now guys. Be sure to check out the podcast when you get a chance; we have some good news that will come out on Tuesday’s show. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments below. I’ll be back on Monday recapping all of the weekend’s action. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend; take care!
