20 Fantasy Thoughts: Don’t give up on Justin Faulk

Chris Kreider scored two out of the Rangers’ three goals on the third and New York cruised to a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.

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. Justin Faulk has just one assist in the past 13 games, and seven straight without a point, but I am not giving up. Why? Because these are the ups and downs that you have to ride out with defencemen. It’s the reason that I set the bar at 200 shots on goal for my fantasy defencemen.

Faulk is still seeing 23-plus minutes per game, with nearly three of those on the top power-play unit. The opportunities have been there. He just hasn’t cashed. Faulk also has 39 SOG in those 13 games, exactly three per game.

2. I know people are concerned about John Carlson’s slow start but I am not. He had recently lost his spot on the top PP unit to Matt Niskanen, but this happens for a few games here and there. It always reverts back because Carlson is just better. There are some who believe Niskanen is the better defenceman but there’s little sense in debating that.

What’s important for our fantasy leagues is which one is the better fantasy asset, and I have no doubt that it’s Carlson. We are still waiting for his first goal of the season but it will come in due time.

3. Scott Darling was forced into action as Corey Crawford had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. You may not have been able to plug Darling in yesterday but he will almost certainly start again today for the Blackhawks. We’ve seen Darling run with the starting gig in the past but he hasn’t been great this season and got lit up yesterday.

Crawford is expected to miss two to three weeks. Someone will surely scoop Darling in your league but I don’t know that it should be you. Crawford has easily been the Blackhawks’ MVP this season. They will seriously miss his presence. I’m dubious of Darling’s value even if he has gone on hot runs in the past.

4. Rickard Rakell is essentially having the same sort of breakout season as David Pastrnak, only he missed the first couple of weeks so his overall point total is a bit down. Rakell is an awesome player, emerging in his third season after a couple of solid seasons where he showed flashes of potential.

He is skating with the big guns (Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry) on the Ducks’ top line and is not only converting chances, but he is also generating loads of shot opportunities. He’s averaging nearly three SOG per game and, despite missing nine games, is still on pace for over 200 SOG. Rakell is only seeing second unit power-play time, but that’s the same fate that Pastrnak faces in Boston.

5. I’ve been chomping at the bit to say something about Mikkel Boedker, since I own him in my deep keeper league. He was held off the scoresheet again on Friday, but he had recorded points in his previous two games. With just four points in 25 games, Boedker should be on the drop pile in most leagues. His 8.3 per cent shooting accuracy suggests that a modest improvement is on the way. But his power-play usage has declined down to near or under a minute in each of his last six games. With the Sharks being so deep up front, Boedker made the wrong choice of teams as far as his fantasy value goes.

6. Alexander Steen didn’t look right to me in the early season but missing two weeks and six games may have been just the rest his surgically repaired shoulder needed. Steen’s a Band-Aid Boy so this is unlikely the last of his injury woes, but he is still a force when healthy.

7. I am at my wits’ end with Vincent Trocheck. I really thought he’d have a shot at a 60-point season but it just isn’t happening. He’s skating 20 minutes a night, with over three of those on the power play but at this point he is just cold and going nowhere.

Like I did with Ondrej Palat earlier in the season, I may drop Trocheck and look to grab him once he starts to pick up steam. I have some fears of something similar happening with Trocheck but right now I am better off with random waiver fodder that I can mine for four to six games each week than I am with Trocheck’s production.

8. Clearly, Chad Johnson is in the driver’s seat between the pipes in Cowtown. It might be that Johnson is a good goalie that simply needed an opportunity, and his career 2.35 goals-against average and .918 save percentage would indicate that he’s not a massive drop-off from other goalies.

Here’s another stat that might validate Johnson’s case: As strong as Brian Elliott was during his time with the Blues, he never played 50 games in any one season in St. Louis. In fact, the only season where he exceeded 50 games was 2009-10 when he played 55 games for Ottawa.

9. The Evgeny Kuznetsov buy-low window has reopened. He has skated huge minutes on the top power-play unit over the past week. He should stick there. I read something about coach Barry Trotz preferring Kuznetsov’s ability to gain clean zone entries than Marcus Johansson’s. Maybe that changes if he isn’t producing but we’ll have to wait and see.

10. Safe to say Jack Eichel is a game-changer for the Sabres. It’s easy to overreact to his hot start back but it’s important to note that Eichel hasn’t subtracted from the Sabres’ lethal power play and may even be enhancing it. More important than what Eichel does with the man-advantage is what he does at even strength because his ability to help turn Evander Kane into an asset will go a long way to helping the Sabres win games, and fantasy managers to find another asset.

11. Travis Zajac is an example that must be considered when looking at the season Artem Anisimov (up to 10 goals now) is having. Zajac did have back-to-back 20-goal/60-point seasons teaming up with a young Zach Parise and (get this) Jamie Langenbrunner! Parise was about on the level that Patrick Kane is now, so as dismissive as I have been about Anisimov sustaining his pace, I was similarly dismissive of Zajac nearly a decade ago. Food for thought.

12. Michael Stone signed merely a one-year bridge deal last summer and will hit unrestricted free agency. Anthony Deangelo’s emergence, the signing of Alex Goligoski and the drafting of Jakob Chychrun creates a logjam for the Coyotes on the blue line. Maybe they are showcasing Stone for a trade.

13. If the Canucks had a better squad I would be all over Troy Stecher who has entrenched himself as their No. 1 defenceman. He is regularly skating over 20 minutes per game, including nearly three minutes on the top PP unit and clearly has the skills to make it work.

Stecher is averaging over three SOG per game, so he looks set to meet my 200-SOG bar for fantasy relevance for defencemen. Unfortunately, he might not even hit 30 points considering the time he has missed working his way into the lineup and then playing with this dreadful roster. We’ll see how Stecher does over the next month. Maybe his scoring picks up a bit and we can start looking at him more seriously. For now, he remains a curiosity.

14. I have Zachary Werenski as my top Calder Trophy candidate so far not just for the tremendous numbers and for how much he dominates play, but also because his team is so much worse without him. I know this isn’t an MVP discussion, but this is still an intangible that should matter. Patrik Laine, Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner and William Nylander have disappeared for stretches, but I haven’t really seen that from Werenski.

Now here is how I think things will finish: 1. Matthews; 2. Matt Murray; 3. Laine. This isn’t because Werenski fades. Far from it. He’s this year’s Shayne Gostisbehere and I think he tops 55 points, which is a bit of a slowdown but I don’t think anyone expects the ridiculous pace to continue.

15. At this point, the future of the Carolina forwards is Teuvo Teravainen, Elias Lindholm and Sebastian Aho. I can’t say if they’ll turn things around enough to make themselves fantasy viable as of this season, though all three have the ability to do so. But I can say that they will continue to get top-six ice time and accrue experience.

16. Nick Foligno is the new Vinny Prospal. We’ve been looking for a replacement for Vinny for quite some time and we’ve found one. Extreme good year, extreme bad year, extreme good year. If he finishes this season the way it has started, and he then gets 40 or 50 points in 2017-18 we’ll know for sure!

17. Is Petr Mrazek turning it around? He’s a far better goalie than what we’ve seen. Couple that with Jimmy Howard’s slump and I consider this a buy-low window. Yes, there’s a risk, but I think Mrazek will pay off – at least to the extent that we saw from him last season.

18. John Klingberg was a healthy scratch again earlier this week. Esa Lindell subbed in and scored. I wish I had an answer for you about Klingberg. Could just be an off year. I am confident in him as a productive star defenceman in terms of the next decade, so if this “off year” keeps up until April then I’d definitely be trying to acquire him next summer. For now, Lindell looks like a great short-term replacement.

19. The Predators claimed Reid Boucher off waivers on Saturday. I have a hard time figuring out how they will use him outside of a fourth-line role, even with James Neal sidelined for the next little while. That Boucher couldn’t find a way to stick in the Devils lineup probably isn’t a good sign either. He showed flashes of brilliance last season but just hasn’t had it this time around.

It doesn’t help Boucher that the Preds recently brought Kevin Fiala back up and had Fiala put on a great display with a pair of goals and seven SOG.

20. Chris Kunitz made his return to the Penguins lineup Saturday skating with Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. Kunitz is a secondary scorer at this point so not much fantasy impact but his return could spell the end for Jake Guentzel, who has been scratched in two straight. The good news for Guentzel; the Penguins are extremely injury prone. Only a matter of time before he gets another crack.

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