I’ll start with a quick dose of reality for poolies who believe things have fully settled into normal routine throughout the NHL. As of the end of this past weekend, there were 22 NHLers who’d played 15-plus games and posted a point-per-game scoring pace or better. Care to guess how many scored at that pace through 70-plus contests last season? Only five. It’s a similar story for goalies – last season only four finished with a .925-plus SV% while playing in 50-plus contests, while so far this season more than double that number have appeared in 10 or more of their team’s games and sport a .925 SV% or better.
In short, big changes are still to come, which of course means buy low and sell high players remain out there. Here are some players to consider this week:
Four Buy-Low Players
Patric Hornqvist – With his poor early stats and not lining up with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin at 5-on-5 recently, some poolies have wrongly lost hope in Hornqvist. That makes it the perfect time to fleece a nervous Hornqvist owner, since Hornqvist has averaged one goal every three games over the past two seasons. That’s a higher rate than, among others, Claude Giroux, Patrick Sharp, Patrick Marleau and Matt Duchene.
Hornqvist will right his ship sooner rather than later, so don’t miss out on getting him for artificially low value.
Dustin Byfuglien – It’s been an off season for ‘Big Buff’ so far, but his health has been just fine. That’s important, because since leaving the Blackhawks, Byfuglien has posted 53-plus points in both of the seasons he managed 70-plus games. Use his slow start to try and land him for a lower than usual cost, especially if you’re in a keeper league. Byfuglien is set to be a highly coveted UFA this summer and will be leaned upon heavily by whichever team signs him.
Marian Hossa – While it’s true that Hossa is 36 years old and has played more games than all but seven current NHL forwards, he’s also scored at least 60 points in the last 11 seasons where he appeared in 70-plus games. So although his 61 points in 82 games in 2014-15 was his lowest scoring pace for a full season since the 1990s, it suggests there’s realistic room for improvement through the remainder of this season. If there’s a worried Hossa owner in your league, see if you can land the possible future Hall of Famer for a bargain price.
Anders Lee – Not only is Lee still firing the same 2.5 SOG per game as he did last season when he scored 25 times, but he’s managed to produce at a better rate than he did in the first half of 2014-15 despite being separated from John Tavares since Ryan Strome was sent down. Chances are a Lee owner in your one-year league is disappointed and impatient at this point, so capitalize on that by trading for Lee, who’ll likely get extended time alongside Tavares before all is said and done.
Four Sell-High Players
Evgeny Kuznetsov – The shoe that all Kuznetsov owners were afraid might drop did: last week the Caps reunited Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom at even strength, relegating Kuznetsov to second-line duty. Even worse, Kuznetsov was off the PP1 unit at times. The good news for Kuznetsov owners in one-year leagues is he has still produced quite well since then, so that gives you time to try and get high value for him in a trade since Kuznetsov’s realistic output over the last 60 or so games would be more like 45 points, instead of the 55-plus he looked like he could get previously.
Martin Hanzal – The time to trade Hanzal is now. Or more like yesterday! Hanzal has managed to stay relatively healthy so far this season and his point-per-game production has been sustained long enough that other poolies in your league might mistakenly see it as the new normal. But the reality is Hanzal won’t sustain his good health, or his production. Why? Hanzal has missed 17-plus games in each of the past four full seasons, and, at age 28, has never even been on pace for 53 points over a full season. You have to play the odds and trade Hanzal before his scoring, and his health, take a turn for the worse.
Rasmus Ristolainen – Although Ristolainen has been playing like a seasoned veteran so far, the reality is he’s still only 21 and he stands to lose some ice time and opportunity – especially on the PP – once Zach Bogosian is back up to speed. In one-year leagues, you shouldn’t hesitate to dangle Ristolainen’s name out there to see if another GM will bite and give you a player you can count on for a point every other game going forward.
Jannik Hansen – We’ve seen this from Hansen before – a great stretch playing alongside the Sedins and the prospect Hansen could get launched into 50-plus point territory. But the ending has always been the same and will be again this season: Hansen will get replaced by a player (usually Alexandre Burrows or Radim Vrbata) who needs a kickstart, and then his stats will nosedive. He deserves a better fate, but fantasy hockey isn’t about fairness, so make sure you aren’t still holding onto Hansen when the music stops.