Every Sunday this season, we’ll share 20 Fantasy Thoughts from the writers at Dobber Hockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week’s “Daily Ramblings” on DobberHockey.com.
1. TJ Oshie matched Ovechkin’s four-point effort with one of his own. It’s been helter skelter for Oshie owners as he has more goose eggs on the season than he has games with points. Fortunately, half of the games in which he has scored have been multi-point efforts. Even after the binge Friday night Oshie is on pace for just 55 points, which is right up his alley.
2. Have you heard the rumours that Marcus Johansson may be made available? A lot of it seems to hinge on whether or not Andre Burakovsky proves himself a viable second-line winger. I think he proved himself in that role last season but clearly Barry Trotz hasn’t bought in. Burakovsky has received less than 10 minutes of action in each of the past five games.
3. Johansson couldn’t find a better situation than he is in right now so don’t think a deal would improve his outlook. Skating on the second line with Kuznetsov and top power-play unit with Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom is just about the best situation in the business.
4. Nikita Kucherov remains hot even with Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson back on the shelf. He has eight points in the last seven games. The window to buy is probably shut for a bit but if he stumbles again I would make your pitch.
5. Andrej Sustr skated over 20 minutes for the first time all season. I don’t see him becoming fantasy relevant stuck behind Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman but this is a sign the coaching staff is looking at other options to do some heavy lifting on defense behind their top pairing. If Sustr could emerge that would really solve some problems.
6. Watch Conor Sheary, who scored his first NHL goal and added an assist in just his second NHL game. Sheary was lined up with Crosby and Chris Kunitz all night, skating 14:46 with 3:14 on the power play. Not bad. I am not buying Sheary stock just yet, but know that he is skating with the big guns on the league’s third-lowest scoring team.
7. What was more impressive; Frank Vatrano’s hat-trick or Ryan Spooner’s four assists? I’m not sure but I know the guy I would buy is Spooner. While he is only centering the third line, Spooner skates on the top PP unit for league’s most efficient man-advantage. The Bruins have clicked on 29.2 per cent of all PP chances, still a ludicrous success rate.
8. The four assists caps off quite the hot streak for Spooner as he has scored 10 points in the last six games and is now on pace for 58 points. That total is plausible but it seems high. I like for Spooner for 50, tops.
9. Brent Burns is entering some esteemed waters. He had another seven SOG Friday night, leaving him second in the league behind only Ovechkin. Burns is on pace for 372 SOG this season. Here is your list of defencemen with over 350 SOG in a season: Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque. That’s it.
10. Just when you thought Joe Thornton was completely fading away, he goes on a three-game scoring streak. Not enough to get him on pace for a respectable point total, but enough to let you know he is still alive. I do think a second-half binge should goose Thornton to the 60-point mark once again, but it will be close.
11. Oscar Lindberg was a healthy scratch as the rookie forward has been mired in quite the slump. He and Kevin Hayes were working magic together when they were left with mere third-line duties. Once Derek Stepan went down the offence really dried up for these guys. I’d expect him to start rolling again now that Stepan is back.
12. Blake Wheeler went off with four assists on Friday. The big winger continues to produce at a point-per-game rate and I am absolutely not putting it past him to continue scoring like this all season. He has the talent to score 80 though it is more likely that he finishes with 70.
13. That’s four straight games without a point for Dylan Larkin, the longest slump of his young career. It feels like this is where he starts to fall out of the Calder race.
14. Since the WJC is around the corner, I figure now is as good a time as any to bring up some names that popped out to me as candidates to snap up in your keeper league now and try to cash in on the hype of the big tournament. Just last year I turned Gustav Forsling and Oskar Lindblom into Alec Martinez. You’re probably wondering who those two prospects are: and that’s exactly my point. The idea is to snap up guys who aren’t already owned, but will excel at the upcoming World Junior tournament and trade up for some established talent once everyone has seen their skills on a big stage. For that reason I will be avoiding obvious names like William Nylander.
15. WJC prospects to snap up: Joe Hicketts, Colin White, Christian Dvorak, Sonny Milano, Brayden Point and Vili Saarijarvi
16. Corey Crawford registered his league-high fifth shutout, which is driving him towards being the top goalie in points-only formats that have healthy shutout bonuses. That’s three shutouts in his last four starts as the Blackhawks are making mincemeat of opponents on their homestand.
17. Jakub Voracek has a four-game scoring streak going. Three of those games have been while skating LW on the second line with Sean Couturier and Wayne Simmonds. That whole line is heating up.
18. Rasmus Ristolainen, as good as he has been, has recorded just one penalty this season. That’s a huge positive for him as an actual player. In fantasy, we still count PIM as a positive for some stupid reason, so this lack of “grit” is actually hindering his value a little bit. I don’t think there is an owner out there who isn’t enjoying the points for PIM trade-off, however.
19. Streaky Brandon Pirri went off with three points Thursday night to extend his scoring streak to five games. I don’t see this lasting. Third line duties with second unit PP time? I’m not feeling this.
20. Paging Jiri Hudler… I know he hasn’t been skating with Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau lately, but somehow the winger had just three points during the seven-game winning streak. I sense he is hampered by an injury that cost him a few games earlier in the year. Also, maybe some lingering effects of the flu that ran through the team. He skated under 15 minutes three times this week.
