Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends! With no games on Thursday, look for a condensed schedule with plenty of back-to-backs.
Happy Thanksgiving!
There are plenty of reasons to be thankful every NHL season, and this season I am thankful for you taking the time to visit this fantasy hockey website. Cranking out content on a consistent and daily basis is not always easy, and I hope this site has proved worthwhile. We will be running daily articles all season long.
Thanks to Jan Levine, who joined this site this season. He's provided high-quality content and taken a load off my shoulders. You can follow him at @airjan23 on X/Twitter. And also thanks to Michael Amato, my co-host for the Sleepers and Keepers podcast, and producer Connor. You can follow Mike at @amato_mike on X/Twitter.
Okay, onto the good stuff.
With the holiday, not there are no games on Thursday. But the NHL will need to play games before a two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, which means a condensed schedule in Week 8. Only eight teams will play less than four games, and only eight teams will not play any back-to-backs. (Fire up your backups!)
Monday and Wednesdays will be huge with a quiet Tuesday with only two games, which is unusual since Tuesday is usually a busy night. There are no days in the NHL schedule where all 32 teams will be in action, so consider Wednesday's 15-game slate and Friday's 14-game slate about as full as you can get. Start your best players and try to avoid any streamers, obviously, unless you have empty roster slots.
There's a few schedule quirks to take note of. The Kraken play two sets of home-and-home series against the Ducks and Sharks, and while the Kraken certainly have the ability to sweep 4-0-0 - they have the easiest scheduled based on combined opponents' points percentage - there's just too much parity in the league for them to do so.
There's a ton of travel for the back-to-backs, which does not affect only two teams: the Wild and Knights. They will play their back-to-backs at home, and in their second games will both face teams playing the second game of a back-to-back with travel. If you have Marc-Andre Fleury or Ilya Samsonov, those are attractive games to start them. Note this is good long-term for fantasy managers who roster Wild players, however, since it gives Kirill Kaprizov some time to recover. His injury is not expected to be serious.
The hiring of Jim Montgomery by the Blues after being fired by the Bruins less than a week ago will be further discussed on Monday's Sleepers and Keepers podcast. I'll touch on it more below, but my immediate reaction is that the Blues will likely pick it up. Montgomery put the lines in a blender during the late stages of his Bruins stint and we shall see if he does the same with the Blues, who've had a lot of trouble scoring, and like the Bruins are underperforming their expected goals percentage at 5-on-5.
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 are as of Saturday.
Season-long adds
(< 50% rostered on Yahoo)
Pavel Buchnevich, C/LW, Blues (49% rostered)
Buchenvich is much better as a left winger and Robert Thomas' return allows the Blues to stack their top line. It's in the Blues' best interest to stack their top line so they can have at least one reliable scoring line, but we shall see what Montgomery does. I think Buchnevich has underperfomed all season, with possession and IPP metrics all below his career average. There's certainly some risk here, but I think Buchnevich's fantasy value will increase over time - we just have to be a little more patient.
Kiefer Sherwood, LW/RW, Canucks (36% rostered)
Jake DeBrusk, LW/RW, Canucks (32% rostered)
The one thing Sherwood and DeBrusk have in common is they play on a line with Elias Pettersson, who's looking more like the elite superstar center we all expected. With Sherwood now entrenched in the Canucks' top six - Brock Boeser is nearing a return, but Conor Garland has moved to his usual line with Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger on what was an excellent L3 last season - and getting PP1 minutes, he's become a must-roster in multi-category leagues. No one else in the league is on pace for 20 goals and a record-breaking 500 hits like Sherwood.
DeBrusk is a streaky scorer and he's coming off a three-point game including two goals, which snaps a six-game goal drought and brings him to 13 points in 19 games. As long as DeBrusk is playing with Pettersson at even-strength and on the PP, he's worth rostering, but in multi-category leagues has far less value than Sherwood.
Jonathan Drouin, LW, Avalanche (21% rostered)
In points-only leagues, Drouin has value. He needs to play with Nathan MacKinnon, which he is, and also with Mikko Rantanen on the power play. Note Drouin doesn't offer much outside of points; he doesn't shoot the puck very often and offers almost no peripherals. Look for Drouin to gain RW eligibility soon if the Avs continue their current deployment.
Mid-term holds
(< 50% rostered on Yahoo)
Stefan Noesen, LW/RW, Devils (49% rostered)
Noesen has clawed his way up to L2 with Nico Hischier after spending most of the season on L3. He was already valuable with his PP1 deployment, goals and hits, but this just adds more value because he's going to skate more minutes. He's played at least 17 minutes in four of his past five games and it's a nice schedule coming up against the Preds, Blues and Wings, all of whom are under .500 and not particularly strong defensively.
Fabian Zetterlund, LW/RW, Sharks (44% rostered)
William Eklund, LW, Sharks (22% rostered)
Zetterlund is finding a lot of fans in fantasy but I'm not sure he's a much better option than Eklund. Both of them flank Mikael Granlund on their top line, and also play PP2 in Ryan Warsofsky's constantly changing PP personnel. Both are producing similar numbers on offense, and what separates Zetterlund from Eklund is hits.
In keeper leagues, Eklund has more value. He possesses more talent and could be a bona fide top-line scorer one day. However, I do like the value proposition for the Sharks, who are much improved from last season and no longer having as much trouble as they did scoring.
Will Cuylle, LW, Rangers (34% rostered)
Cuylle had a quiet game Saturday even though he played a season-high 17:28, and despite their record, the Rangers are struggling. However, if you're looking for goals and hits, and someone who may move up the lineup, consider Cuylle. He's up to 15 points in 19 games, and if you missed out on Kiefer Sherwood, Cuylle's a nice consolation prize.
Yegor Sharangovich, C/RW, Flames (19% rostered)
'Sharky' took a little while to get going upon returning from injury, but it looks like he's heating up for the Flames - pardon the pun - with three points in two games. He's been putting a ton of shots on goal and Ryan Huska's trying all sorts of line combos to get his offense going because they've been getting bailed out quite a bit by their goaltending.
They're just not very good at finishing - they're 27th in 5-on-5 shooting percentage per naturalstattrick.com - but we could see regression back to the mean. Given the Flames' constantly changing top six, I feel Sharangovich and Nazem Kadri - underwhelming, I know, but be patient - are their most consistent and best options.
Jack Roslovic, C/RW, Hurricanes (11% rostered)
Just when I thought Roslovic should be dropped and attention should turn to Jackson Blake - more on him below - Roslovic bounces back with a goal in three straight games. He's been attached to Sebastian Aho's hip with Andrei Svechnikov being moved up and down the lineup, and as long as Roslovic stays in that spot, he'll have fantasy value. The schedule is not great, facing Igor Shesterkin, Jake Oettinger and the Panthers twice in Week 8, but Roslovic is worth holding onto as long as he keeps scoring.
Kent Johnson, C, Blue Jackets (8% rostered)
What a return for Johnson, who scored shorthanded and on the power play in his first game back from a serious shoulder injury, then logged two assists in the following game, including the game-tying goal by Kirill Marchenko to complete the comeback against the Canes. Johnson was excellent prior to his injury and he's picked up where he left off. In deep leagues, Johnson is your best bet for significant appreciation in fantasy value.
Olen Zellweger, D, Ducks (19% rostered)
I still don't trust the Ducks offense all that much, but it is much, much improved. They've won four of their past six with at least three goals scored in all four wins, and a big part of that has been Zellweger, who's scored five points in his past four games. There's some tough competition for PP minutes with Jackson LaCombe and Pavel Mintyukov, and then with Cam Fowler when he comes back, but Zellweger has the most upside of them all right now.
David Rittich, G, Kings (27% rostered)
Rittich was featured in this space last week when he was rostered in just 17 percent of leagues, and I'm a little surprised he's still under-rostered with no return date set for Darcy Kuemper. As I said before, Rittich can be a good source of wins because the Kings are so good at limiting shots; he's faced 20 shots or less in three straight starts, allowing three total goals (!) and winning two of those games.
The fact that Pheonix Copley was called up and Erik Portillo, who has yet to see a minute of NHL action in his career, tells me that Kuemper might be out for a litte longer and that we may see Copley on either Friday or Saturday in the Kings' back-to-back.
Joonas Korpisalo, G, Bruins (19% rostered)
Interesting Joe Sacco went with Joonas Korpisalo in his first game as head coach behind the bench, and Korpisalo responded with a 21-save shutout. If Jeremy Swayman didn't respond with a strong performance of his own to give the Bruins their second straight win, I'd be way more bullish on Korpisalo's value.
However, as I mentioned at the beginning of the season, Korpisalo has some sneaky fantasy value. Swayman hasn't been his dominant self, Korpisalo has proven he can be a reliable option for the Bruins, and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets more starts. It won't be a 50-50 split, but Korpisalo might end up being one of the league's best backups.
Spencer Martin, G, Hurricanes (4% rostered)
We shall await news regarding the severity of Pyotr Kochetkov's injury, but it didn't look good. He was knocked in the head by his own defender going around the net, and Martin was forced to come in to finish the game. If Kochetkov is sidelined, look for Martin to take over starting duties with Yaniv Perets as the backup. I'm not confident in Martin, who has a sub-.900 save percentage most seasons, but the Canes are very good at limiting shots, which gives Martin a good chance to win games.
Short-term streamers
(< 50% rostered on Yahoo)
Jackson Blake, RW, Hurricanes (1% rostered)
There was a brief moment where Blake joined the Canes' top six, but for the most part he's still a power-play merchant with bottom-six minutes at even strength. However, he's been very consistent at getting shots on goal and converting them, and like Noesen might find his fantasy value slowly climb.
Marcus Johansson, LW, Wild (1% rostered)
If Kirill Kaprizov misses additional time, look for Johansson to maintain his L1 role. He played over 20 minutes Saturday against the Flames on a line with Matt Boldy, and Johansson's potentially good in points-only leagues. He offers little else beyond offense, but the deployment is very attractive and the Wild have an attractive schedule after Monday's clash with the Jets, facing the Sabres, Hawks and Preds to close out the week.
John Gibson, G, Ducks (23% rostered)
Once again, I'm pretty impressed. Gibson drew his second straight start Saturday against the Sabres following a 3-2 win against the Hawks, and so far there haven't been any real blowup games. That's the fear with Gibson, who hasn't had much fantasy value over the past few seasons. It looks like the Ducks will split the starts, and with an improved offense, their goalies suddenly look much more attractive. If Gibson is traded this season, his fantasy value should increase, so that's some further upside if you intend on holding him.
Yaroslav Askarov, G, Sharks (16% rostered)
Vitek Vanecek was the backup on Saturday, but Askarov stuck around. That's interesting; while the Sharks' AHL affiliate is on the road, it would've made sense to even paper Askarov down to the farm team to accrue some cap space. The expectation is Askarov will return to the AHL very soon, which means he's droppable at that point.
Askarov has long-term value because one of Vanecek and Mackenzie Blackwood (or both) will surely get traded by the end of the season. Look for them to split their back-to-back against the Kraken, which means Askarov's not expected to have any fantasy value in Week 8.
Honorable mention:
Tyler Seguin, C/RW, Stars (42% rostered)
Sean Monahan, C, Blue Jackets (32% rostered)
Josh Norris, C, Senators (32% rostered)
Kyle Palmieri, RW, Islanders (31% rostered)
Anthony Cirelli, C, Lightning (31% rostered)
Conor Garland, RW, Canucks (29% rostered)
Kirill Marchenko, RW, Blue Jackets (26% rostered)
Owen Power, D, Sabres (39% rostered)
Bowen Byram, D, Sabres (33% rostered)
Matt Roy, D, Capitals (10% rostered)
