On every game day this season, THN Fantasy will highlight players and goalies for fantasy managers to stream or roster for the rest of the season. The recommended players and goalies are rostered in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues and can be selected in standard fantasy leagues or for daily fantasy games.
11 games on Saturday, April 11
* = confirmed
Marcus Hogberg, NYI at Samuel Ersson, PHI (12:30 p.m. ET)
Hunter Shepard, WSH at Daniil Tarasov, CBJ (12:30 p.m. ET)
Igor Shesterkin, NYR at Pyotr Kochetkov, CAR (3 p.m. ET)
Scott Wedgewood, COL at Darcy Kuemper, LA (4 p.m. ET)
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, BUF at Sergei Bobrovsky, FLA (6 p.m. ET)
Jakub Dobes, MTL at Joseph Woll, TOR (7 p.m. ET)
Connor Hellebuyck, WPG at Spencer Knight, CHI (7 p.m. ET)
Karel Vejmelka, UTA at Jake Oettinger, DAL (8 p.m. ET)
Marc-Andre Fleury, MIN at Thatcher Demko, VAN (10 p.m. ET)
Juuse Saros, NSH at Adin Hill, VGK (10 p.m. ET)
Jordan Binnington, STL at Joey Daccord, SEA (10 p.m. ET)
Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury, MIN at VAN (18% rostered)
This will likely be Fleury’s last start in the regular season of his storied career, and no doubt the Wild will want to win for him. The Wild are playing the second half of a back-to-back with travel, but they should be relatively fresh with Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov having just returned from injury. The Wild have dominated this matchup in recent seasons, losing only twice in 11 games though the games have been close. Fleury is 16-3-2 (!) all-time in his career against the Canucks.
With the Canucks missing some key players, and with the Wild playing for playoff positioning and the Canucks eliminated, the Wild certainly have more to play for. Fleury’s strong record against the Canucks and a relatively healthier roster tips the scales in their favor.
Karel Vejmelka, UTA at DAL (45% rostered)
Tough matchup, but it’s quite certain Vejmelka will make his 22nd straight start. The upside to Vejmelka is he can make a lot of saves, and he’s been really playing well this season with a .907 SP.
The Stars are 28-9-3 at home and could be too tough to handle for Utah, who have lost all three games against the Stars this season. Vejmelka should be good for saves, and anything more than that would be a big bonus.
Jakub Dobes, MTL at TOR (11% rostered)
The Habs are playing the second game of a back-to-back on the road against a tough team, and just had their six-game winning streak snapped. Dobes was really strong in his previous start (36 of 37 saves, .973 SP) but he also hasn’t been very consistent. The Habs have beaten the Leafs just once in their past seven matchups.
Maybe Dobes can provide some saves and steal the game, but the Habs need to provide good goal support, too. There will be some extra motivation after the Habs failed to clinch following Friday’s loss to the Sens, but with the Leafs on a roll and coming off two days’ rest, the advantage certainly goes to the Leafs.
Scott Wedgewood, COL at LA (19% rostered)
Feels tempting, but the Avs will likely be without top center Nathan MacKinnon and that takes a huge bite out of their offense. The Kings have been on a roll and Darcy Kuemper is tough to beat. Wedgewood has 12 wins in 17 starts this season with the Avs, but without the goal support this assignment is really tough.
Wedgewood can offer up a good save percentage but the Avs will be very shorthanded and scored just once against the Canucks in their previous game. Wedgewood can win if the Avs keep the shots to a minimum, but the Kings offense has been really good since Andrei Kuzmenko joined the lineup; since he joined the team on March 8, the Kings are averaging the second-highest goals per game (3.56) and have the second-highest points percentage (.778), just slightly ahead of the third-place Avs.
Hunter Shepard, WSH at CBJ (0% rostered)
Daniil Tarasov, CBJ vs. WSH (3% rostered)
The Caps play back-to-back, so if Logan Thompson is not ready to go, look for Shepard to play either this game or Sunday’s in a home-and-home series against the Jackets; ether way, it’ll be his first appearance of the season. Merzlikins is not expected to dress, which means Tarasov will get his 20th start. With so much offensive firepower on both teams, neither goalie really stands a chance to put forth a strong start. Shepard has modest numbers (.891 SP, 2.81 GAA) on a good AHL Hershey team, while Tarasov has struggled for most of the season.
This game is highly unlikely to be a defensive battle, and both teams feature plenty of scoring talent. The Caps certainly have the advantage here, and keep in mind Shepard does have some NHL experience to draw from, appearing in four games last season with a .894 SP. The Caps have won five straight meetings and lost just once in regulation in their past 13 meetings dating back to 2021.
Marcus Hogberg, NYI at PHI (4% rostered)
Samuel Ersson, PHI vs. NYI (15% rostered)
This is probably the worst goaltending matchup for Saturday’s slate. Look for Hogberg to get the start if Ilya Sorokin is unavailable due to injury, and Ersson hasn’t been good for several months. The Flyers have won four of their past five but they’ve generally been really high-scoring games. The only way either goalie can win is if their team provides a lot of goal support, and there’s a lot of good reasons to believe this game will feature a lot of goalies.
Ersson is likely the better play for the win, but both goalies are unlikely to provide a good save percentage or a low goals against.
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