The best part of fantasy sports, and particularly head-to-head-leagues, is that every week is different. A player who had one point last week and dragged a fantasy team down could have six points next week and lead a fantasy team to victory. Here’s what happened in the last week of fantasy hockey.
Injuries
Sports are riddled with injuries, and sometimes fantasy teams are at the mercy of these injuries. Here are the significant fantasy players who suffered injuries over the last week, and what it means for their respective teams:
- Patrick Sharp (Chicago) – The scoring winger suffered a knee injury and could be out all of November. At present time, the ensuing shuffle has resulted in Kris Versteeg moving to the top line with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, but Chicago coach Joel Quenneville is notorious for constantly blending his lineups.
- Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit) – After missing the start of the season with a shoulder problem, Datsyuk is now sitting out with a groin problem. With Gustav Nyquist, Johan Franzen, and Henrik Zetterberg all on the top line, it doesn’t leave much fantasy relevance among the rest of the Detroit forwards.
- Michael Raffl (Philadelphia) – The line mate to Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek will be out well into December with a lower-body injury. This has moved Wayne Simmonds to the top line — a great bonus for those that drafted the power forward this year. Like Detroit, it doesn’t leave much fantasy relevance among the rest of the Flyers forwards not named Brayden Schenn.
- Olli Maatta (Pittsburgh) – The young Penguins defenceman underwent surgery to remove a thyroid tumour. While it’s expected he will make a full recovery, he will miss about a month. That gives some additional value to other Penguins defenders like Paul Martin and Christian Ehrhoff.
- Zach Parise (Minnesota) – Minnesota’s top scorer so far this year has missed two games with a concussion. Brain injuries are by nature tricky, so there’s no telling just how long Parise will be out. In the meantime, Thomas Vanek has been placed on the top line with Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville. That doesn’t leave much value for the rest of the Minnesota forwards unless it’s a deeper league (14 teams or more).
- Valeri Nichushkin (Dallas) – He returned this week after missing most of the year so far with a groin problem. That issue flared up again and he will be taking a few days off. In the meantime, Patrick Eaves has found his way up alongside Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.
- Adam Henrique (New Jersey) – Tied for the New Jersey scoring lead, Henrique missed the last two games with a lower-body injury. His injury has moved Dainius Zubrus to a line with Patrik Elias and Michael Ryder, though Zubrus has almost no value outside of deep leagues.
When put in a list, it’s really quite astounding the number of significant fantasy injuries that occur on a weekly basis. It’s the bane of fantasy owners. It can ruin seasons. The only thing owners can do is replace the player and move on.
Top Performers
There were a lot of huge fantasy performances this week. Let’s go through some of them:
- Mark Giordano (Calgary) – Following a three-point game on Saturday, Giordano is tied for fifth in NHL scoring with 18 points. With two goals, five assists, nine shots on goal, one power play point, and a plus-3 rating, Giordano may have single-handedly won a week for some head-to-head players. Fantasy owners who have defensive depth but own Giordano may want to shop him around, as his value will never be higher than it is right now.
- Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis) – With three goals, three assists, three power play points, and 11 shots on goal, it was a superb week for Tarasenko. Not only did he rack up the points, but he also scored a couple of highlight reel goals. It looks like a breakout season is in store for the young Blues forward. Like Giordano, his value may never be higher, but I wouldn’t trade him off a fantasy roster unless a potential top-25 player like Erik Karlsson was coming back in return.
- Jakub Voracek (Philadelphia) – Voracek is currently sitting second in the NHL in scoring with 22 points in 14 games, following a week with three goals, three assists, and three power play points. Voracek always had the ability and the opportunity to put together a top-20 fantasy season, and it looks like this year it’s all coming together for him. I would hang onto Voracek because the return on draft day investment is too good right now.
- Jaroslav Halak (N.Y. Islanders) – Fantasy owners that stuck by Halak through early season struggles were rewarded this week. Though they were going through a tough Western road trip, Halak managed two wins, a 0.98 GAA, and a .962 save percentage. The team gets a couple nice matchups this week with Florida and Colorado before heading to Tampa Bay on Saturday.
Honorable mentions to Claude Giroux (2 G, 3 A), Martin St. Louis (3 G, 2 A), and Jonathan Quick (2 W, 0.97 GAA, .962 SV-percentage).
*Some statistics courtesy of Hockey Reference, NHL.com, and Yahoo!