It's the final week in fantasy hockey as the 2023-24 season wraps up.
If you're in a fantasy hockey league where it runs until the official end of the 2023-24 regular season on April 18, this primer's for you.
In most cases, Week 25 would've served as the final week of the fantasy hockey season. Extending the fantasy hockey season until the end runs the risk of having teams rest their best players, and it would be awful if the player you've been counting on for the entire fantasy season is a no-show when you need him most.
Week 26 will be an extended week and run one-and-half weeks from Monday to next Thursday before the playoffs begin on Saturday. It's a short turnaround but there are still playoff spots up for grabs, and playoff positioning will also be vital as the season draws to a close. Teams will obviously plan accordingly, and if they lock up the division or league title, they have little say in whom they will face in the opening round. The Canes and Rangers are most prone to resting their key players, especially given their schedule, which we will get to later.
Since Week 26 runs a little longer, five teams will play a league-high six games, and 13 teams will only play four games. The key to winning Week 26, however, may not be focusing on which teams play the most games, but rather which teams will end their season the latest.
There are off-days in the first part of Week 26, but the games will be evenly spread out the rest of the way.
For your convenience, I've highlighted the final games for each team in yellow in the schedule below.
The Rangers, Predators, Devils and Sabres will play their 82nd game on Monday, making them the first four to reach the finish line. That means by Tuesday, you can drop any of the players from each of these teams without any worry, unless you're in a keeper league. After Monday, Igor Shesterkin, Juuse Saros, Artemi Panarin, Roman Josi, Tage Thompson and a slew of others will have literally zero fantasy value the rest of the season even though they've been invaluable for much of the season.
If your league has a "Can't Cut List," you may be out of luck since you will not be able to drop players that are deemed to be too good to be cut. This is done to prevent collusion and to prevent unsportsmanlike behavior such as a manager dropping all of his players.
There are six games on the final day of the regular season, but it's possible most of the games will be meaningless. The Ducks, Sharks, Wild, Blackhawks, Kraken and Flames are playing games that have basically no stakes, and it's possible the Oilers, Avalanche, Canucks, Kings, Jets and Knights will have their first-round opponents determined by then. With such a short turnaround, these are the teams who may wish to sit their star players for added rest.
As the regular season will end after Week 26, this is the final primer for the fantasy hockey season. I hope you had fun and found these primers helpful. Good luck the rest of the way, and thank you for reading.
Schedule
Pick players from teams at the top of the schedule matrix to maximize games and matchups. Green is good. Red is bad. All advanced stats courtesy naturalstatrick.com. All positions and rostered percentages are courtesy of Yahoo Fantasy. Points percentages as of Saturday.
Yellow = season finale
Weekly Bangers
(< 50% rostered on Yahoo, on teams with at least 6 games this week)
Hits/GP
Simon Benoit, D, TOR - 3.79
Martin Pospisil, C/RW, CGY - 3.79
Keegan Kolesar, RW, VEG - 3.49
Ryan Reaves, RW, TOR - 3.27
Paul Cotter, C/LW, VEG - 3.13
Blocks/GP
Alec Martinez, D, VEG - 3.16
Brayden McNabb, D, VEG - 2.63
Jamie Oleksiak, D, SEA - 2.14
TJ Brodie, D, TOR - 2.08
Mark Giordano, D, TOR - 1.93
Season-long adds
(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R4vVsQSwOM[/embed]
Mikael Granlund, C/RW, SJ (24% rostered)
William Eklund, C/LW, SJ (9% rostered)
Eklund is coming off a hat-trick performance and together they form two-thirds of the Sharks' top line. It's easy to shrug off the Sharks in fantasy, but someone has to score on that team. With the best odds in the draft lottery pretty much locked up, the Sharks are playing freer, and with a little better puck luck, they're scoring more goals than expected right now.
Nick Bjugstad, C, ARI (23% rostered)
Logan Cooley, C, ARI (17% rostered)
Dylan Guenther, LW, ARI (10% rostered)
By the same token, the Coyotes' season is pretty much over. They're playing freer as well, and given the amount of talent they have on their roster, they've become quite the formidable offensive team. Bjugstad centers the top line with Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz on his wings, so he has the most upside, but if you're looking for shots and goals, Guenther is a great choice. He'll be one of the best sleeper picks next season.
Mid-term holds
(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)
Gabriel Vilardi, C/RW, WPG (20% rostered)
Vilardi can be hit or miss in fantasy but he's playing top-line minutes with Mark Scheifele and Nik Ehlers and scored a hat trick against the Flames. With the Jets playing five games in Week 26 and finishing their season on the very last day, Vilardi can be a good strategic play.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGt2smzIZRs[/embed]
Nick Paul, C/LW, TB (12% rostered)
Paul's on a three-game points streak centering the second line with Steven Stamkos and Brandon Hagel on his wings. He's played over 21 minutes in his past two games, and while he's streaky, it's a good time to take advantage. The Lightning face the Jackets, Sens and Capitals next, none of whom defend particularly well.
Philipp Grubauer, G, SEA (31% rostered)
The Kraken broke away from their goalie rotation -- sorry, Joey Daccord stans -- and Grubauer ended up starting three straight games, including Friday's matchup against the Ducks even though he lost Wednesday against the Kings and Daccord was named the team's Masterton nominee Friday morning.
I'm not sure why Daccord didn't play at all, but if the Kraken are going to stick with Grubauer for an entire week, it's possible they'll continue to give him the starts over the next little while. I don't trust Grubauer, but if you need volume, he's a possible option.
Semyon Varlamov, G, NYI (24% rostered)
The Isles seem to have lost confidence in Ilya Sorokin, and keep in mind Patrick Roy's guy back in Colorado was Varlamov. He's coming off a 41-save shutout against the Preds and started five of their past eight games. With no back-to-backs for the rest of the season, it's conceivable Varlamov gets the majority of the starts, or at least half of them.
Justus Annunen, G, COL (16% rostered)
The Avs went with Alexandar Georgiev in a key matchup against the Stars on Sunday, but the fact that Annunen was the possible starter shows the potential brewing goaltending controversy. Annunen has posted better stats, albeit starting against some weak teams. Georgiev has the most wins, but he's needed the Avs' goal support to accomplish that.
There's a chance the Avs give Annunen some looks down the stretch. If Georgiev struggles in the playoffs, the Avs need to know if they can rely on Annunen.
Short-term streamers
(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)
Anthony Mantha, RW, VEG (5% rostered)
Tomáš Hertl may join the Knights as soon as Monday, which may put a dent in Mantha's ice time, who's playing on the third line. Mantha has been quietly very good lately, scoring a point in six of his past seven games. I wouldn't be too concerned about Hertl to start, since he'll have to be eased into the lineup, and the Knights play a league-high six games the rest of the season, including an easy finish with the Hawks and Ducks next Tuesday and Thursday, repsectively.
Jesper Wallstedt, G, MIN (18% rostered)
Wallstedt's season debut didn't go so well, but his second start was excellent with a 24-save shutout against the Hawks on Sunday. The Wild want to see what they have in their goalie of the future, and if Wallstedt continues to play well, he's going to demand more of the playing time. The Wild have a back-to-back coming up Friday and Saturday, and that may be when we see Wallstedt next.