Fantasy Hockey Head-to-Head Week 16 Primer

It's a six-game slate to kick off Monday and there are seven games on Wednesday, so the only off days are Friday and Sunday. This is the type of week where you can space out your moves throughout the week but be sure to use basically all your moves by Saturday. Sunday's matchups with the Kings at Blues and Blue Jackets at Kraken don't offer many good options for streaming. 

There are eight teams playing four games this week but really only five or six teams offer much upside since two of those teams are the Blackhawks and Jackets. Along with the Blues, they're making their way through Western Canada, which means they're all going to face the toughest teams in the Pacific Division by avoiding California. (The Blues do host the Kings on Sunday, however). 

That also means the Canucks, Flames and Kraken have one of the easiest schedules this week, trailing only the Sabres, who sweep through California with stops in Anaheim and San Jose. 

The Avalanche and Maple Leafs play only twice, which means that if you have an elite fantasy player such as Nathan MacKinnon or Auston Matthews, you're gonna hope they have big games or be forced to find streaming options on the waiver wire to make up for the lack of games. 

The Leafs, in particular, face the daunting task of facing the Jets twice in a home-and-home series. The Leafs have won five of their past seven meetings, but there's no doubt the Jets are the better team this season, especially in net. 

For the Avs, the roster move to watch for is the impending return of Artturi Lehkonen, who is expected to return and will likely play a top-six role. That may mean Jonathan Drouin gets bumped off MacKinnon's line, or MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen get split up (again) or one of Logan O'Connor and Miles Wood gets bumped down to the bottom six. Either way, Lehkonen's a fantastic add for this week and the rest of the season. 

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. 

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

Hits/GP

Keegan Kolesar, RW, VEG - 2.95 
Paul Cotter, C/LW, VEG - 2.93 
Sammy Blais, LW, STL - 2.79 
Jared Tinordi, D, CHI - 2.73 
Mathieu Olivier, RW, CLB - 2.41 

Blocks/GP

Alec Martinez, D, VEG - 3.52 
Brayden McNabb, D, VEG - 2.76
Erik Gudbranson, D, CLB - 2.56
Colton Parayko, D, STL - 2.50 
Matt Roy, D, LA - 2.28 

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Chandler Stephenson, C, VEG (22% rostered)

Not sure when William Karlsson and Jack Eichel will return, but Stephenson will hold down the fort as 1C until that happens. He's centering Mark Stone and riding a four-game points streak while averaging over 19 minutes per game. 

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Wyatt Johnston, C, DAL (24% rostered)

Over the past four games, Johnston has scored four points in four games with 12 shots and 18 faceoff wins. Though he can be a streaky scorer, what's giving his fantasy value a boost lately is playing L1 with Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson. Going forward, he might gain RW eligibility, too. 

Cam Atkinson, RW, PHI (21% rostered)

With Owen Tippett unavailable, Atkinson is the ideal candidate to fill the void. He had been playing well up to Tippett's injury, and with an assist Sunday against the Sens, stretched his points streak to five games. The best part about Atkinson is that he can be a high-volume shooter. 

David Rittich, G, LA (10% rostered)

Cam Talbot's struggling and Rittich's playing well, and Rittich is also getting the start Monday against the Sharks even though there's no back-to-back. This will be Rittich's third straight start, which is a strong signal that he's taken over the starting job for the time being until either a) Talbot gets back on track or b) the Kings look for help elsewhere, either via through trade or waivers.

(< 25% rostered on Yahoo)

Adam Henrique, C/LW, ANA (19% rostered)

Henrique's really giving himself a boost in trade value with three multi-point efforts in his past four games. He's playing L1 with Troy Terry and Leo Carlsson on a high-upside scoring line and since Jan. 1 leads the team with nine points in 10 games. 

Sean Monahan, C, MTL (15% rostered)

As the trade deadline approaches, Monahan's pumping his own trade value with a four-game assists streak. He assisted on three of the Habs' four goals against the Bruins, and now faces the Sens, Isles and Pens this week. The first two matchups should provide a few more points given their porous defenses. 

Juraj Slafkovsky, LW, MTL (6% rostered)

We shall have to see how long Slafkovsky can keep this up, but note he's scored three points in his past four games and playing L1 with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. The big, burly winger has improved this season but still lacks the offense to make him a desirable long-term fantasy player. For now, he's still just a streaming option.