Fantasy Hockey Head-to-Head Week 5 Primer

Week 5 will be about managing injuries. 

Jack Hughes is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury after crashing into the boards off a scoring chance, and he’ll be tough to replace as the league’s top scorer. 

Adam Fox was placed on LTIR, which means he’ll miss at least 10 games or 24 days, whichever comes first, opening the door for Erik Gustafsson to quarterback a top-tier Rangers power play. 

Nicklas Backstrom has taken an extended leave of absence due to health issues, and Sean Couturier has missed the past two games due to an injury. Igor Shesterkin is day-to-day.

We are definitely approaching the winter months now. It’s been only one month, but the flurry of action, colder temperatures, fatigue and general wear-and-tear of playing high-intensity games will do that. It’s the same every season.

The good news is that Week 5 has spread out the 51 games quite evenly compared to Week 4. If you were scrambling for players on Sunday in Week 4, it’s going to be less stressful in Week 5.

Monday opens up with four games before the usual days – Tuesday (10 games), Thursday (11) and Saturday (12) – get busy. Wednesday will be the off-night with only three games on the schedule, before finishing with six on Friday and five on Sunday.

There are nine teams who play a league-high four games in Week 5, and it’s the good teams who have plenty of options throughout their lineup: Canucks, Stars, Panthers and Leafs sit atop the schedule matrix though, unfortunately, none of them play the Sharks.

Speaking of the Sharks, though they rank ninth on the schedule matrix, they are the worst team in the league by a wide margin. Load up on the Ducks on Sunday if you need a late boost; it’ll be the Sharks’ third game in four nights and they’ll be on the road coming back from Vegas. 

The downside with rostering players playing against the Sharks, however, is that in the case of a blowout, the top players will usually get rested, capping their upside. In the Canucks’ 10-1 win, they started with the second unit on a power play and didn’t challenge a very challengeable call for goalie interference to preserve Thatcher Demko’s shutout, though Demko was rewarded by the hockey gods against the Stars on Saturday.

The Devils will be one of three teams who play just twice this week, so those who have Jack Hughes on their roster aren’t missing out on a lot of games. 

Even with the games spread out, note that there are 15 teams playing back-to-back, so be prepared to fire up those backups.

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.

EDIT: An earlier version was missing Tuesday's Flyers at Sharks game in the schedule matrix.

(< 50% rostered on Yahoo, on teams with 4 games this week)

Hits/GP

Marcus Foligno, LW/RW, MIN – 3.36
Michael Pezzetta, C, MTL – 3.00
Dakota Joshua, LW, VAN – 2.70
Arber Xhekaj, D, MTL – 2.64
Brandon Duhaime, LW, MIN – 2.36

Blocks/GP

Kaiden Guhle, D, MTL – 3.57
TJ Brodie, D, TOR – 3.09
Erik Gudbranson, D, CLB – 2.73
Mark Giordano, D, TOR – 2.73
Ivan Provorov, D, CLB – 2.54

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Robert Thomas, C, STL (24% rostered)

Admittedly, it’s a little strange to see Thomas score four goals in 10 games already for the pass-happy center, but he’s also been the most productive Blues forward so far. He’s their top playmaker by a pretty wide margin and carries a three-game goal streak into Tuesday’s game against the Jets. He should be productive all year despite playing on a mediocre team. Someone has to score, right?

Casey Mittelstadt, C, BUF (20% rostered)

Mittelstadt’s great in points leagues and his scoring is really starting to take off with five points in his past four games. Though Jeff Skinner has been moved off Mittelstadt’s line, JJ Peterka has scored five goals in 11 games and currently on a five-game point streak – he’s worth streaming, by the way – and Victor Olofsson’s goal drought should end soon; he’s far too talented to not score. The Sabres have found their offensive mojo after a slow start to the season and scored at least four goals in five of their past six games.

Trevor Moore, LW, LA (20% rostered)

The Kings have a nice schedule with the Flyers and Pens coming to L.A., and Moore continues to quietly plod along at a point-per-game pace. He’s on a three-game point streak with only two multi-point games, a testament to his consistency.

Quinton Byfield, C/LW, LA (11% rostered)

What pushes Byfield up the list from a mid-term hold or a short-term streamer into a season-long add is his potential as a keeper. His scoring rate is up because he’s shooting the puck a lot more, but also because he’s vastly improved and maintains his spot on the top line with Anze Kopitar. There may be quiet stretches but Byfield’s up to 10 points in 11 games already and could finish with over 50 by the end of the season.

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Lawson Crouse, LW/RW, ARI (15% rostered)

Crouse didn’t score a goal in the first seven games of the season but now finds himself on a tear with four goals in three games. He played lower in the lineup at the start of the season then he did last season and his ice time shows it (16:01 TOI/GP vs. 17:45) but he’s back on track for a potential third straight 20-goal season. Combined with his hits, Crouse can be very valuable in banger leagues.

Ilya Mikheyev, LW/RW, VAN (10% rostered)

Mikheyev's assist Saturday against the Stars extended his point streak to three games, his second such streak this season. He's now up to six points in seven games on the season after returning from knee injury and established very good chemistry with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko. The Canucks play four games in Week 5 for some quantitative value. 

Ivan Provorov, D, CLB (22% rostered)

I think the jury’s still out on Provorov and it’s still looking like a speculative hold. He had zeroes across the board in an uneventful Saturday game against the Caps, but with eight assists and 28 blocks in 11 games, he’s provided a nice floor with small multi-category contributions in nearly every game.

Erik Gustafsson, D, NYR (14% rostered)

Gustafsson scored a goal and an assist – though neither on the power play – on Saturday against the Wild. With Adam Fox out for an extended period of time, Gustafsson will be their PP1 QB for the time being. Peter Laviolette trusts him because Gustafsson had one of his best seasons under Laviolette in D.C. last season. When Fox comes back, Gustafsson’s likely droppable.

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Dawson Mercer, C/RW, NJ (34% rostered)

Mercer is above the 25 percent rostered rule but he’s worth mentioning because he’s going to mop up a lot of minutes vacated by Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier. He centered Tyler Toffoli and Timo Meier against the Hawks on Sunday and responded with a goal. More importantly, at least Mercer’s getting shots on net with four shots in each of his past two games. He’s still underperforming relative to expectations, so you hope and wait until he becomes something more. 

Wyatt Johnston, C, DAL (21% rostered)

Johnston’s been playing very well and the numbers should really start to ramp up soon. He can run a little hot and cold on a pretty deep Stars offense, but you’ll get some quantity in Week 5 with four games, including road games against the Jackets, Jets and Wild, all of whom are having trouble keeping pucks out of their net. Johnston has gone three games without a point but managed to put 10 shots on goal – one of his next few shots should go in.

Marco Rossi, C, MIN (7% rostered)

We’ll see if Rossi’s spot on a stacked top line with Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy is a season-long arrangement, but Rossi’s benefitting the most from Dean Evason’s latest lineup shuffle. Rossi is also playing PP1, and over the past six games has scored four goals and two assists. He’s winning faceoffs and shooting the puck for multi-category coverage. The danger is that Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman are still lurking, and they can cut into Rossi’s ice time at any time. For now, Rossi’s a streamer but worth holding onto if you have the roster space.