Welcome back, everyone, to another fantasy hockey mailbag! Let’s jump right into things!
In goal I have a miserable quartet of Halak, Gibson, Korpisalo (out) and Ullmark (IR). I’m in the top spot, but how the heck can I face the playoffs? What should I do with them? — Peri S.
Buckle up, Peri, we are heading directly into the goalie VOO DOO Vortex! I’m proud to be your co pilot on this dangerous and daunting adventure.
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I have been thinking about your question most of the day and asking myself what I would do, and what your options might be. I always try to put myself in the readers’ shoes!
Before we get too deep… you’re in first place! Congrats on that! Now let’s dive in.
At first glance, it’s interesting you find yourself in first. Then I think about it more and see some of your goalies who have played well in spots during the season — so you have more than likely made the right decisions to play certain guys when they were at the height of their powers. Let’s start at the start, with Jaroslav Halak. With 25 starts he has 14 wins, a save percentage of .921, and a goals against average of 2.36, with three shutouts. That is very good; the only place he lacks? He is not the starter. He’s played a fair amount for a backup and the Bruins are in a very good spot. And I believe he will get plenty of work down the stretch sharing the load with Rask. I’d keep him for sure — stats like that don’t grow on trees.
Something I have talked about a ton this season here (and on the podcast Four Stacked Lines) is that goalies are being deployed differently in today’s NHL and we as fantasy GMs need to adjust with the times. Something I’m trying to do is pair two goalies on strong teams that play a good defensive structure and allow both of their goalies to share the load. Rask and Halak from the Bruins is a great example of this. A great move for you is to use some of your positional depth and try to acquire Rask. I KNOW, I KNOW this is a tall order and the Rask owner is probably not going to trade away one of the best goalies in the league. I suggest packaging Gibson and Korpisalo with another good asset. I think for you, if you can get that tandem and get rid of the rest of your goalies, you could become a very dangerous team.
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This can be supplemented with streaming goalies in the second half of the week to make up ground, if needed, by playing the matchups — backups with good matchups are always available on the wire.
You could also accomplish this same strategy by trying to get Elvis Merzlikins and pairing him with Korpisalo. We don’t know what is going to happen when Korpisalo comes back. He was the starting goalie for the Blue Jackets, but Elvis most definitely has not left the building. Elvis is on a legendary run right now and is proving to be one of the best stories in the NHL this year. There is an unwritten rule among hockey men in the NHL, and that is a starter can’t lose his job to injury. This mantra will have never been tested more than it will be when Jonnas returns to the lineup. It’s not like he was bad before he got hurt, but at this point I just don’t see him becoming the starter while Elvis plays like this. My guess? It will be a split with Elvis getting the majority of the starts as long as he continues to play like he has been playing. Your opening could be that the Elvis owner is nervous about the return of Korpisalo, and might entertain the idea of trading him to bolster a position of need.
Gibson is a great trading option at this point and is putting up good numbers, except for wins (see the Ducks’ win-loss record) despite being on a team that is not good and in a massive rebuild. He has played 40 games and has just 16 wins — that’s not good, but that is just one category. His GAA is 2.96 — not great but OK — and his SV% is .905, which is not bad either.
The goal for you is to turn two of your goalies into a good starter and you may have to trade two and another piece to acquire a good starter, but winning fantasy hockey leagues is hard. Nothing worth doing is easy. Winning the whole league, though, is totally worth it.
Good luck! I hope this helps in some way!
Colorado has a handful of hot hands: Girard, Burakovsky, and Zadorov. Do you think any of them (or anyone else on the Avs) might be the real deal down the stretch? — Justin C.
The Colorado Avalanche are one of my favorite teams to watch this season. The No. 1 reason is Nathan MacKinnon. Like a lot of the players on this team, they are loaded with offensive talent. I think the saying goes, “ a high tide raises all boats.” Now that I have shown my age with a sweet nautical catch phrase from the 1800s let’s take a look at some of the guys you mentioned and surprise players to pay attention to as well.
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Dan (oops!) Sam Girard is a player I am very familiar with as he was drafted by the Nashville Predators, my hometown team and noted defenseman factory over the past 10-15 years. He was traded to the Avalanche and has been a pretty effective player for them, especially this season — and he’s been very effective in the past month or so. In 51 games played this season, he has tied a career high in points with 27 and has a whopping 25 assists. He is an elite skater and puck mover, and an excellent 2020-style defender. He isn’t going to win you any weeks in the hit categories but is averaging 21:34 of ice time playing on the second pair and the PP2. Tons of skill, tons of opportunity.
Andre Burakovsky is a guy I have had my eye on since his days with Washington. He was never going to get a real opportunity in Washington with both Vrana coming up, who is having a breakout season, and Ovechkin playing the LW. He got traded to Colorado and has played on both top lines, sharing the ice with MacKinnon and Kadri. He has been up and down in his 48 games played. He has 17 goals and 22 assists for 39 points. That puts him on pace for 67 points. I believe he gets there and could even flirt with 70-75 points. A massive value from where he was drafted and a pleasant surprise for the Avalanche.
Zadorov is a guy I really love to watch. He’s big, mean and physical, but he might not be a great fantasy option unless you have hits, as he has 134 so far. All of the above players are worth owning depending on your situation and team.
A guy I like that is only 2 percent owned, and is loaded with skill and size, is Valeri Nichushkin. Full transparency, I liked this player when he fell flat on his face in Dallas before being traded to the Avalanche. It’s because of his size and skill. I also acquired him on all my teams when I saw him doing clean and jerks in the hallway after a game — not relevant at all in any way, but I am a hockey psycho, and this video of him impressed me. After playing a game in the NHL, he had the work ethic to workout right afterwards in the hallway with his equipment still on — Psycho! He has worked his way into the good graces of the coaching staff from playing very limited fourth line minutes to playing on the second line with Kadri and Burakovsky, and also playing on the second power play. Don’t let his 9 goals and 12 assists scare you away as he has not played a ton and not had a lot of opportunity so far this year, but he is starting to heat up and get a real chance to become a player for the Avalanche. In the end I don’t know what your team needs are or who you are carrying on your team, but Burakovsky and Girard are definitely streamable if not ownable, and Nichushkin is a guy to keep your eye on.
I am in a 12-team bangers league that also has FOW. Both Hintz and Pavelski are on the wire. Either worth picking up or look elsewhere for streamers? — Shams B.
First things first, I do find it surprising in a 12-team bangers league that Hintz is available. Pavelski is a massive disappointment this year and a guy I was very (very) wrong about in the offseason. I never envisioned Dallas having this much trouble scoring. Like all good teams, and I do believe Dallas is a good team, they find a way to win. They have become one of the strongest teams on defense, playing every game with great attention to detail and defensive structure. Hintz is a guy I absolutely love. I fell in love with him during last year’s finals where Dallas manhandled my Nashville Predators. There were definitely nights where Roope Hintz was the best player on the ice. His speed, skill and size combination make him a very attractive player. He has been hurt a few times this year and gone cold here and there — hee has played a total of 44 games, with 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points. This league is a bangers league so his 53 hits is really good, and he has 139 face off wins, another good number for you. So even when he’s not scoring goals and collecting points, he is helping you.
Joe Pavelski is starting to turn it on a bit and has similar numbers to Hintz. He’s played 53 games, and has 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points. It took him nine more games to get to those numbers. What surprised me is that he has 44 hits and 282 FOW. The face-offs are glaring and he is hitting more than I was even aware of. Over time, Pavelski has been one of the league’s most all-round productive players. The past six seasons he has had 62 points or more, and he is currently on pace for 36 points, which would be near his career low of 31 — but that year he only played 48 games. So you need to take an eye test and a heart test. Do you believe Little Joe is done as a productive player and or will Hintz get hot and pick up his point pace? At this point, although I love Hintz as a player, Pavelski seems like more of a sure thing. He has proven it and been very consistent, except for the first part of this season. I think he turns it around in the second half here and becomes a very important player for the Stars and, in turn, a very important player for you or whoever has had the guts to hold onto him up to this point. To back up my claim of him turning it on as of late, we can just simply look at his past five games — 3 goals and an assist, almost a point per game and doing very well on face-offs. You have to go with your gut because both of these players could be fairly even for the rest of the year. Assess what you need and pick what player is most likely to help you in those areas.
(John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
