Navigate Week 20's light schedule and key trade deadline moves. Boost your fantasy team with Nazem Kadri and other impactful pickups before the playoffs.
With a combined nine games on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Week 20 is shaping up to be a pretty tough week with such light slates on those days. For most fantasy leagues, this will be the last week of regular-season play before playoffs begin.
Not one team will be playing all their games on the off-nights, but Ottawa, Philadelphia, Washington and L.A. will be playing on two of the three nights.
All things considered, it was also a pretty quiet trade deadline with a lot of big names staying put. One of the most significant moves was Nazem Kadri going back to Colorado, and his fantasy value should increase going from a team that can barely score to arguably the league’s most dangerous. (More on Kadri below). Conor Garland going to Columbus, Michael Bunting to Dallas and even Andrew Mangiapane to Chicago are also moves that should increase their fantasy value because they’re going to better teams or getting more minutes.
On the other hand, players who played big roles on their previous teams, such as Brayden Schenn, John Carlson and Justin Faulk, will likely see their roles diminish as they move onto better teams with an established pecking order. It’ll be interesting to see how the Ducks use Carlson, in particular, with Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas already on the right side, and Jackson LaCombe handling the power play for much of the season.
Side note: The last month of the season is typically when NHL teams start signing NCAA free agents, some of whom will dress right away to get their first taste of pro hockey. In past seasons, they’ve made minimal impact in the few games they play at the end of the season, but they represent potentially intriguing streaming options nonetheless.
However, the NHL season will end April 16 while the Frozen Four will end April 11, leaving little time in-between to sign players and get them up to speed to play NHL games. Michigan’s top scorer, T.J. Hughes, and Northeastern’s top scorer, Dylan Hryckowian, whose brother Justin plays for Dallas, are among those who are rumored to have garnered interest from NHL teams.
All positions and rostered percentages are courtesy of Yahoo Fantasy.
Schedule
Pick players from teams at the top of the schedule matrix to maximize games and matchups. Green is good. Red is bad. Points percentages are as of Sunday morning.
Courtesy Jason Chen, The Hockey NewsSeason-long adds (< 50% rostered on Yahoo)
Nazem Kadri, C, COL (65% rostered)
After a trade back to the Avs, Kadri should be rostered in more leagues given he’s going from one of the league’s worst offenses to arguably the league’s best. He played 21:47 in his Avs debut against the Wild on Sunday and notched an assist and five shots on goal, though he wasn’t able to improve the Avs’ horrific power play, which was 0-for-5.
Interesting that Kadri was played on the right wing on Brock Nelson’s line, with Nic Roy and Jack Drury serving as the bottom-six centers. It makes sense; Kadri’s not very strong on the dot, and with Artturi Lehkonen and Gabriel Landeskog injured, it means the Avs need depth on the wings. At this rate, Kadri could get RW eligibility in Yahoo leagues.
Alex Lyon, G, BUF (47% rostered)
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, G, BUF (49% rostered)
Luukkonen’s gained a lot more attention after being rostered in just one-third of Yahoo leagues last week, but both goalies should be rostered for the rest of the season. They’ve won seven straight with a thrilling win against the Lightning on Sunday to take first place in the Atlantic, and show few signs of slowing down especially after they bolstered their defense and depth at the trade deadline. Luukkonen and Lyon will split the starts for the foreseeable future, and they’re arguably the best tandem in the league right now.
Mid-term holds (< 50% rostered on Yahoo)
Dylan Holloway, C/LW, STL (51% rostered)
Holloway’s gaining a lot of attention in fantasy and with two big multi-point games – hat trick and an assist against the Kraken, three helpers against the Sharks – and he’s proven he has a lot of boom-or-bust potential. The bust part of the equation has to do more with his team; the Blues have been out of sync all season and spread their ice time out quite evenly. Holloway, however, at least gets L1 and power play minutes with Robert Thomas, and represents the Blues’ best option on the wing.
It feels like Jordan Kyrou is one game away from getting benched, Jake Neighbours and Jimmy Snuggerud haven’t been nearly as productive, and Jonathan Drouin is not a threat to take anybody’s ice time. Holloway provides offense and some hits.
Charlie Coyle, C/RW, CBJ (36% rostered)
With the Jackets building momentum going 3-0-1 in their past four, and making a strong bid for a wild-card spot, it also doesn’t look like Coyle is slowing down, either. The big checking center is on a five-game points streak, averaging around 19 minutes per game lately and scoring at a career-best 65-point pace. The shot volume is way up, too, and if this kind of production stays consistent, Coyle will have plenty of rest-of-season fantasy value in multi-category leagues.
Mason Marchment, LW, CBJ (28% rostered)
The Jackets’ top line with Marchment, Kirill Marchenko and Adam Fantilli is definitely worth paying more attention. He’s scoring at close to a point-per-game pace (19 points in 20 games) since joining the Jackets, with some really good underlying numbers in expected goals (53.31 xGF%) and they start in the offensive zone nearly 70 percent of the time, per naturalstattrick.com.
Mavrik Bourque, C/RW, DAL (11% rostered)
This is the most productive stretch of Bourque’s young career, riding a four-game points streak while playing L1 with Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston. With Roope Hintz likely missing an extended period of time, look for the Stars’ lines to remain intact while they’re winning. A proven point-per-game player in the AHL, Bourque provides offense and a modest number of hits.
Short-term streamers (< 50% rostered on Yahoo)
K’Andre Miller, D, CAR (16% rostered)
Shayne Gostisbehere sat out Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury and it’s not believed to be serious, but he’s also battled injuries all season so it’s a mild concern that he could miss more time. If he does, look for Miller to see increased playing time. Alexander Nikishin may be on the power play, but Miller’s provided five assists in his past three games while averaging 23 minutes per game.
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