NHL Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire Goalie Pickups and Expected Starters March 27 - Habs' Dobes, Blues' Hofer Among Potential Starters Worth Streaming

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.

10 games on Thursday, March 27

* = confirmed

Tristan Jarry, PIT at Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, BUF (7 p.m. ET)

Linus Ullmark, OTT at Alex Lyon, DET (7 p.m. ET)

Karel Vejmelka, UTA at Andrei Vasilevskiy, TB (7 p.m. ET)

Jakub Dobes, MTL at Aleksei Kolosov, PHI (7 p.m. ET)

Charlie Lindgren, WSH at Filip Gustavsson, MIN (7:30 p.m. ET)

Joel Hofer, STL at Juuse Saros, NSH (8 p.m. ET)

Casey DeSmith, DAL at Dustin Wolf, CGY (9 p.m. ET)

Darcy Kuemper, LA at Mackenzie Blackwood, COL (10 p.m. ET)

Calvin Pickard, EDM at Philipp Grubauer, SEA (10 p.m. ET)

Joseph Woll, TOR at Alexandar Georgiev, SJ (10:30 p.m. ET)

Goalies

Joel Hofer, STL at NSH (9% rostered)

The Blues may continue rolling with Jordan Binnington, but I think they might split their two games on the road. Regardless, Hofer might be tasked with keeping the Blues’ seven-game winning streak alive against the Preds, whom they defeated 4-1 on March 23. The Preds won’t go down without a fight – another loss and they might be eliminated from playoff contention – but the Blues have a huge upper hand.

Hofer should be a great play for saves, a good save percentage and a win. Should he get the nod, he’s the best streaming option on a busy Thursday. Hofer is 2-0-0 with a .906 SP against the Preds this season.

Jakub Dobes, MTL at PHI (9% rostered)
Aleksei Kolosov, PHI vs. MTL (0% rostered)

The Habs have lost three straight and Dobes came in relief for Sam Montembeault in a 6-1 loss to the Blues, but with a back-to-back, expect Dobes to start. This should be a good matchup; the Flyers have been the league’s worst team over the past month – 2-10-1 since March 1 – and recently called up Aleksei Kolosov because their usual tandem – Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov – has been awful. Kolosov (.870 SP, 3.45 GAA) doesn’t figure to be much better and it's a desperation move by the Flyers, and the Habs shouldn’t have any problems providing goal support and Dobes has been stronger on the road with a 5-2-1 record, .922 SP and 2.19 GAA.

The Flyers might come out strong after getting embarrassed in consecutive games, but they don’t have a roster good enough to compete. Barring a poor performance by Dobes, he’s in line for a win and a good save percentage. The Flyers are averaging a league-worst 1.69 goals per game in March.

Calvin Pickard, EDM at SEA (10% rostered)

It’s the second game of a back-to-back with travel for the Oilers, and even without their top two players, I like this matchup for Pickard. He’s won three of his past four starts with strong stats on the road (11-3-0, .914 SP, 2.41 GAA) and already beaten the Kraken twice this season, allowing four goals on 46 shots (.913 SP).

The Kraken offense has been surprisingly good in March, ranking seventh with 3.50 goals per game thanks to a strong power play, which gives me some pause. However, their own goaltending has run into some issues lately, and the Oilers are 12-2-0 all-time against the Kraken. I’m not sure if Pickard will offer a good save percentage, but I do think a win is likely.  

Casey DeSmith, DAL at CGY (11% rostered)

The Flames have a ton of momentum right now with four consecutive comeback wins, including two in overtime. It’s life-or-death for them and they’re playing with more desperation than the Stars, who are quite comfortably in playoff position and playing the second game of a back-to-back. DeSmith has been solid all season but I’d be wary of this start, especially since the Stars aren’t particularly good on the road (18-14-2).

The Stars should be favored but not by very much. I think DeSmith has a chance to earn the win but their last game was close – 3-2 overtime win for the Stars – and their past eight matchups have averaged 8.6 combined goals. He’s not the best streaming option in a potentially high-scoring game, but should still provide managers with positive value.

Alex Lyon, DET vs. OTT (6% rostered)

The Wings went from a three-goalie rotation to having one healthy goalie in Lyon, who’s expected to make his third straight start for the first time since mid-October. Both teams have struggled recently but also have the potential to put up goals in a hurry. The Sens are slightly favored based on NHL.com’s FanDuel odds, and they’re a surprisingly good 14-2-2 against the Wings since the 2019-20 season.

Lyon has played sparingly, and likely for good reason. The Wings don’t trust him a lot and the Sens’ offense has a lot of talent that can score a lot of goals. Throw in the Sens’ recent dominance of the Wings and Lyon looks like a poor streaming option.

Tristan Jarry, PIT at BUF (28% rostered)

Do we still want to play this game? Jarry was pulled after allowing four goals on seven shots, easily his worst game since getting called up. Sometimes managers are forced to pick the best of the worst when there aren’t any quality options available, but that’s not the case for Thursday’s slate. The Sabres average 3.34 goals per game at home, 10th-best in the league.

Remember to bookmark The Hockey News Fantasy site for stats, news, analysis, rankings, projections and more, including the Sleepers and Keepers fantasy hockey podcast!