For a lot of leagues, this is the championship week of the fantasy hockey season. The 2025-26 season concludes on April 16, which means Week 23 will be the last seven-day matchup week running from March 30 to April 5. The following week will stretch from April 6-16, but most fantasy leagues will avoid the final week-and-half since most teams, either those bound for the playoffs or the lottery, will hold players out of the lineup.
Week 23 is packed. Starting at the top, the Penguins will get a rare five-game week, and they’ll be the best team to mine for streaming opportunities. It is, however, a tough schedule; a back-to-back with a road game on Monday on Long Island, a home game on Tuesday against the Wings, a short trip to Tampa on Thursday, and then a back-to-back series against the Panthers with both games played at home.
It’s a lot of travel, and even with the Panthers basically out of the playoff race, their constant desire to hack, whack and grind their opponents into submission has not relented. Tack on the fact that both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are both battling injuries and may not be 100 percent healthy, and it’s a big challenge.
Thursday and Saturday will be big days for Week 23 matchups with 14 and 15 games, respectively. There’s a reprieve with seven games on Sunday, but note 12 of the 14 teams are playing the second half of a back-to-back, which means plenty of backups should be in action.
While the Mammoth and Predators have favorable schedules, note both teams only play twice. Their players probably still offer more value than any Flame or Jet who doesn’t play on the top line, but they don’t play until Thursday; managers won’t have to make moves on Mammoth or Predators players until the conclusion of Tuesday’s games at the earliest.
The primer will return for Week 24 for managers in leagues that run until the end of the season, but consider this the unofficial conclusion of the 2025-26 fantasy hockey season. Thanks for reading and following along, and I hope the primers have been more helpful. Good luck the rest of the way.
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)
Quinton Byfield, C/LW, LA (52% rostered)
Going out on a limb with this one considering how disappointing Byfield has been overall. However, his offense has picked up lately (nine points in seven games) and, most importantly, the schedule can’t get any easier. The Kings are one point behind the Preds for the last wild card spot with a six-game homestand coming up (including two against the Preds, though admittedly the Kings are awful at home) and the easiest schedule for the remainder of the regular season with five games against divisional opponents, per tankathon.com. Byfield has scored 15 points in 21 games this season against his own division.
Jimmy Snuggerud, RW, STL (27% rostered)
A three-game points streak and a point scored in five of his past six games makes Snuggerud worth paying attention to. Relative to Dylan Holloway (68% rostered), Snuggerud’s getting overlooked despite posting very similar stats, with all three players on the Blues’ top line scoring 15 points apiece since March 1, with Snuggerud holding a slight edge in shots (42 to 40).
Bobby McMann, LW, SEA (25% rostered)
Not sure what the Kraken’s plans are for the rest of the season with Berkly Catton sticking with Jordan Eberle and Matty Beniers even though Jared McCann and McMann are in the lineup, but the best indicator of fantasy value between their top left wingers is ice time.
In that respect, McMann, who plays L2 and PP2, still holds a definite edge averaging 21:06 TOI per game, trailing only Beniers (21:36) and Stephenson (23:11) over the past three games, and well ahead of Catton (18:43) and McCann (15:16). McMann’s been a hit with his new club with seven goals, 11 points, 23 shots and 17 hits in eight games, and his role is very unlikely to diminish as the Kraken’s playoff hunt heats up.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, G, BUF (52% rostered)
Alex Lyon, G, BUF (46% rostered)
Slightly concerned the Sabres have lost three of their past four, though two of those losses came in overtime. What is more concerning is the Sabres were trailing for much of those games, and they were high-scoring affairs. That being said, Luukkonen and Lyon remain overlooked in fantasy, and they have a somewhat favorable schedule to close out the season with games against the Rangers and Blackhawks.
Mid-term holds (< 50% rostered on Yahoo)
Cole Hutson, D, WSH (9% rostered)
That’s now five points in six games for Hutson, who collected two assists in Vegas. His minutes are still limited, but there’s little reason to keep Hutson on a leash while the Caps look forward to the future. With matchups against the Devils and Sabres (who are suddenly allowing a lot of goals) coming up, Hutson should have plenty of streaming value.
Connor Ingram, G, EDM (22% rostered)
Don’t think Tristan Jarry will be that big a factor the rest of the season, especially with Ingram wining both of his previous games. He’s a dicey play on most nights, but with five of their remaining eight games against divisional opponents, there’s bound to be a few more wins to be picked up.
Short-term streamers (< 50% rostered on Yahoo)
Matt Coronato, RW, CGY (7% rostered)
With the second-lowest goals for per game average in the league, the Flames aren’t an ideal team to stream in fantasy. However, note Coronato has been on fire for a team that’s won four of their past five games and having little trouble scoring. (Morgan Frost is also an option, by the way).
Sometimes, taking some pressure off winning games (they’re out of the playoffs) and getting more clarity on the future (they’re definitely rebuilding) can help a young team play a little more freely. Coronato’s on a five-game points streak with an interesting matchup in Vegas (new coach, poor goaltending) on Thursday and Anaheim (bad defense) on Saturday.
Porter Martone, RW, PHI (2% rostered)
Martone will make his NHL debut sooner than later after Michigan State was eliminated from the NCAA playoffs. A big power forward, Martone is one of the best prospects in the world and led the Spartans with 50 points in 35 games as a 19-year-old.
Difficult to say where Martone will slot in the lineup, but he should be used in offensive situations, and his mix of size, skill and physicality will likely endear himself quickly to Rick Tocchet. Given how Matvei Michkov’s season is going, there’s an argument to be made that Martone, with fresh hype and a blank slate, will get more leeway and minutes than Michkov under Tocchet.
Jordan Spence, D, OTT (4% rostered)
Jake Sanderson is travelling with the team on their two-game road trip, and since he did not play Saturday in Tampa, it seems likely he will play Tuesday in Florida. However, that’s not set in stone, and should Sanderson sit out for another game, Spence has some streaming value.
Carter Yakemchuk has more long-term upside and Tyler Kleven has been playing significant minutes, but Spence has also seen his minutes tick up and quarterbacks PP1. Over the past four games, Spence has scored three points with six shots, nine blocks and played at least 26 minutes in three of the four games.
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