Discover rising stars like Frank Nazar and Marco Rossi. Find waiver wire gems to boost your fantasy lineup as key players sit out.
On every game day this season, THN Fantasy will highlight players and goalies for fantasy hockey managers to stream, roster or utilize in standard leagues and/or DFS games. Players and goalies highlighted for streaming in standard leagues are rostered in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues.
Rickard Rakell, C/LW/RW, PIT vs. EDM (63% rostered) - FanDuel $5,900
Anthony Mantha, LW/RW, PIT vs. EDM (13% rostered) - FanDuel $5,100
If there’s a team that knows Tristan Jarry well enough to pick out the holes in in his game, it’s definitely the Pens. Rakell has rejoined L1 and PP1 since returning from injury, and he’ll certainly log a ton of ice time for a top-heavy lineup.
Mantha is the sneaky play with PP1 upside even though he plays a lot less at even strength because he’s far less consistent and reliable. Regardless, he’s been quite good this season with 10 goals and 56 shots in 31 games, and possesses some goal-scoring upside. Jarry was victorious in his Oilers debut but needed six goals from his offense to secure a 6-3 win.
William Eklund, LW/RW, SJ vs. CGY (33% rostered) - FanDuel $5,500
Eklund has scored three points in his past two games and should see increased minutes with Will Smith on IR, though Collin Graf and Tyler Toffoli are expected to play on Macklin Celebrini’s flanks. Eklund, however, will continue to share time with Celebrini on PP1, and this is a good matchup against the Flames, though they have been playing better lately with four wins in their past five and managing to keep goals against to a minimum.
Frank Nazar, C, CHI at TOR (32% rostered) – FanDuel $5,800
Nick Lardis, LW, CHI at TOR (0% rostered) - FanDuel $3,000
Nazar is on a five-game drought but he will the focal point of the Hawks with Connor Bedard out of the lineup. This is a tough matchup but note Nazar will likely skate around 20 minutes and provides both face-off wins and shots.
Lardis, a top prospect who was one of their top scorers in the AHL at the time of his callup and made his NHL debut on Saturday, is an intriguing streaming play. He played 15:32 and finished with a minus-2 rating, but also provided two shots and five hits. He finished sixth in total TOI among forwards and also saw some deployment on PP1.
Marco Rossi, C, VAN at NYR (21% rostered) - FanDuel $5,600
Rossi is the de facto 1C with Elias Pettersson out of the lineup, and in his Canucks debut played 18:16 in L1 and PP1 roles. He had a solid all-round game with a shot, hit, three blocks and nine face-off wins, and he’ll see similar deployment in this matchup. The Canucks offensive ceiling isn’t high but Rossi will be on the ice for a lot of those situations without another scoring center on their roster. There’s little danger of getting his ice time cut as he did at times with the Wild.
Zach Bolduc, LW/RW, MTL vs. PHI (12% rostered) - FanDuel $4,200
Bolduc can be an unreliable fantasy asset but on the upside he’s back on L1 and PP1. The Flyers can be quite stingy and Bolduc’s ice time can fluctuate because he’s not a trusted top-six player just yet. He has just one goal in his past four games averaging 14-15 minutes of ice time and should be considered more of a boom-or-bust option.
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