Saturday, January 6th
CENTERS
Steven Stamkos: Water is wet. Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov are both expensive as hell but you know what you’re buying. Kucherov leads the league in points, Stamkos is third. Taking an Ottawa team on the second part of a back-to-back and starting Craig Anderson for the second night in a row. Anderson let up five goals last night and now takes on the best offense in the league.
Auston Matthews: The young’un has three goals in his last three games and four in his last five. I’m not afraid of Chell legend Jacob Markstrom and his .889 road SV%. Dial up the babies at the top of the Maple Leafs lineup.
Nathan MacKinnon: Remember when people thought he was never going to live up to his projections? MacKinnon has 17-32-49 this year in 40 games. The 22-year old and the rest of the top line is lighting it up in Colorado. Play him against Devan Dubnyk.
Others to consider: Patrice Bergeron (The Bruins have been killing it as of late, no reason to assume they’d stop), Mika Zibanejad (I don’t care what Antti Raanta did last start, he’s not good), Sean Monahan (four points in his last two games, playing alongside Johnny Hockey makes everyone better)
WINGS
William Nylander: We’re gonna keep targeting Markstrom with Matthews’ wingman in Nylander. He’s had some up and down games, but has points in 3 of his last 5. I think tonight is a night where they may have his name penciled into the scoresheet in warmups.
Rickard Rakell: A guy I swore I’d never play again in PlayDraft after a 2-point performance cost me first place in a tournament, Rakell has been rolling as of late; seven points in his last 5 games, and still managed four shots even without scoring in his last game out.
Marian Gaborik: The old man can still play, it seems. Gaborik has 5 points in his last 4, but he is a little dangerous. In his last game out he was a complete 0. Pekka Rinne SHOULD be in net for NSH making Gaborik is a risky GPP style play.
Johnny Gaudreau: Jawnny Hawkey is a stud. He has 4 assists in his last 2 games and you can sense he wants a goal sooner rather than later. John Gibson let up just one goal last week when these teams met but I think Johnny and Monny put one or two behind him tonight.
Others to consider: Viktor Arvidsson (I love Quick but I think the top line is gonna be the one putting pucks across for Nashville tonight), Nino Niederreiter (Coming off a hat trick performance, Nino and the Wild have been averaging 3.8 goals per game. Think he puts one past Jonathan Bernier, who’s coming off a shutout), Anthony Duclair (nothing will get Duclair’s trade value up more than scoring, something he’s been lacking this season)
VALUE / PUNT
Charlie Coyle: He’s $4,700 on FD, and playing with Zach Parise on his right. He’s got goals in back-to-back games.
Jakob Chychrun: “Who?” He plays second pairing for ARI, and has points in 3 of his last 4 games. He’s also averaging 5 shots and 2 blocks per game in that stretch. 18 FD Points over his last 4 for $3,900 isn’t something to blink at. Use him as your salary relief to help fit the TB stack
DEFENSEMAN
- Erik Karlsson
- Victor Hedman
- P.K. Subban
- Torey Krug
- Mark Giordano
- Morgan Reilly
- Ryan Suter
- Roma Josi
STACKS
Tampa Bay: Stamkos-Kucherov-Hedman
Toronto: Matthews-Nylander-Reilly
Colorado: MacKinnon-Landeskog-Rantanen
CONTRARIAN – Calgary: Monahan-Gaudreau-Giordano: I like them even against a goalie who stopped them last time out.
GOALIES
- Andrei Vasilevskiy
- Frederik Andersen
- Pekka Rinne
- Jonathan Quick
