The Tampa Bay Lightning acquiring Tanner Jeannot was probably the most polarizing trade around the deadline.
Tampa gave up a massive haul of future draft picks for a player that only had five goals in 56 games this season. Some felt the deal made sense given the Lightning are still in a Stanley Cup window that may only have a handful of years left, while others believed it was simply way too much to give up for a player that was going to end up in Tampa’s bottom six.
If you were hoping Jeannot was going to recapture some of last year’s offence when arriving in Tampa, you’ve been sorely disappointed. Jeannot has one goal since joining his new team and it took until Saturday night to get it. That was Jeannot’s first point in 13 games.
Maybe we shouldn’t be that surprised, since Jeannot is getting minimal minutes and the 24 goals he scored last season came off of a massively inflated shooting percentage.
Jeannot still brings a lot of value for his hits but little else at this point. The Lightning are no doubt hoping he can score a big goal or two this spring to help justify the trade, though that will come as little consolation to those who rostered Jeannot this season hoping he might have a chance to be the next Brady Tkachuk.
1. Is there a better value contract out there right now than Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ deal? The Edmonton Oilers forward only has a $5.125 million cap hit, yet he’s rapidly closing in on 100 points thanks to a whopping 19 points in his past 11 games. That was punctuated by a five-point night earlier this week against the Vegas Golden Knights.
It’s hard to fly under the radar when you have a 100-point season, but Nugent-Hopkins might be doing just that. I guess that’s what happens when you have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on your team. McDavid’s season is historic, though it shouldn’t take away from what Nugent-Hopkins is doing.
Sure, Nugent-Hopkins has taken advantage of plenty of playing time with both McDavid and Draisaitl, as well as the league’s best power play, but it’s not always easy to play with great players. You have to play and think at their speed and many have failed when given the opportunity. In fantasy, you’re always looking for that player deeper in drafts who's going to take advantage of getting a chance to play with elite talent, and Nugent-Hopkins is becoming the gold standard in that regard.
2. There probably aren’t many productive Oilers available in your league, let alone someone in their top six, but Kailer Yamamoto is likely one. Yamamoto has seven points in his past eight games with a friendly schedule coming up. Edmonton gets Anaheim and San Jose next week, so Yamamoto could be a sneaky pickup if he keeps this up.
3. Back-to-back 100-point seasons for Matthew Tkachuk is very impressive, and I’ve already had a lot of people ask where he should be drafted next year. The interesting thing about Tkachuk is there’s a bit of a misconception that he’s similar to his brother and incredibly valuable in multi-cat leagues because of his style of play. Tkachuk, though, only has 58 hits this season, which is well below one per game. That’s a far cry from the 132 he had in only 56 games two years ago. Tkachuk is actually more valuable in points leagues and you could still argue he’s a top-15 pick in those formats, but just don’t count on huge hit production from him.
4. Kudos to you if you took a chance on Jakub Vrana after the trade deadline. Vrana is now up to nine goals in 14 games as a St. Louis Blue and continues to prove there’s no questioning his scoring ability. The challenge with Vrana is he hasn’t played anywhere close to a full season since 2019-20 but this run will no doubt put Vrana on the radar of a number of fantasy managers next season come draft time. If he can give you at least around 60 games or so in 2023-24, Vrana will be a steal.
5. Another Blue that’s been enjoying a great stretch is Sammy Blais. His 15 points in 13 games are impressive, but there’s more than just offence that makes Blais a worthy pickup. He’s averaging more than three hits per game as well. Blais, for now anyway, is blending a rare combination of hits and point production that makes him a must-have on your roster.
6. Cam Talbot had one of the strangest stat lines in recent memory on Thursday. The Ottawa Senators netminder picked up a win, but he stopped just 7-of-11 shots in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers that went into overtime. You don’t see too many victories from a goalie where they had a .636 save percentage.
7. It’s been a tough go for Mats Zuccarello minus Kirill Kaprizov. The Minnesota Wild forward has just a pair of assists in his past eight games. It’s understandable that anyone would miss playing with someone as skilled as Kaprizov, but Zuccarello’s production is really plummeting, as he was scoring at almost a point-per-game pace before this cold stretch.
8. On the other end of the spectrum, Marcus Johansson is taking advantage of a bump in the lineup with 11 points in his past 11 games. Johansson has attached himself to Matt Boldy’s rocketship for a major increase in offence. He could be someone to target next week if your squad needs help at forward.
9. Speaking of next week, the Seattle Kraken have the best schedule by far. There are only a handful of teams that play four times and the Kraken are one, and they have Chicago, Vancouver and Arizona (twice) as opponents. It doesn’t get much better than that. I wonder if Jaden Schwartz is worth a look. He’s widely available and has three points in three games with 11 shots over that stretch.
10. It was disappointing to see Flyers goalie Carter Hart go down with an injury when he was playing so well. Hart had won four straight and had three quality starts in that span, so many who were rostering him were banking on that to continue deep into the fantasy playoffs. It’s not easy getting good numbers from a goalie on a team that’s out of contention this time of year.
What was more frustrating is that Felix Sandstrom has started three games in a row in Hart’s absence. You might remember Samuel Ersson had a fairly strong showing in January earlier this year, so I thought he might at least get a look this week.
11. Many thought Tyson Barrie’s value would really fall when leaving the Oilers and their top power play, but he’s at least shown some flashes in Nashville that he can still be productive if given an opportunity. Barrie has seven points in seven games since Roman Josi got injured, and he’s received some increased time with the man advantage as well. If Josi remains sidelined you may be able to squeeze a bit more out of Barrie the rest of the way.
12. Devon Levi started his first career game Friday and had an impressive showing, stopping 31-of-33 shots in the win. It’s only been one game but it’s certainly something to build hope on for a Buffalo Sabres team this year that struggled to find consistent goaltending. The Sabres could be the next team to take a New Jersey Devils kind of jump forward as early as next season. If that happens, you’ll probably want Levi on your roster as he goes along for the ride.
13. After recording points at a torrid pace upon joining the Boston Bruins, Dmitry Orlov has really come back down to earth with just two assists in eight games. Orlov has never been a huge point producer, so it’s not surprising to see him drop off. It was fun while it lasted.
14. With a hat trick Saturday, David Pastrnak now has a real shot to hit 60 goals. Is he a top-five pick in fantasy drafts next year? McDavid, Draisaitl, Auston Matthews and Nathan MacKinnon should be locks but the next pick should be up for grabs. You could make cases for Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, Cale Makar and a handful of others, but Pastrnak probably has as good an argument as anyone after the season he’s had.
15. He’s not the most flashy player in the world but there’s something to be said for Jonathan Marchessault’s consistency. Over 82 games, Marchessault typically scores around 25-30 goals, about 60-65 points and well over 200 shots, give or take. These players often get taken for granted in drafts in favour of options with more upside, but your roster needs stability, too. With so much variation year-to-year in a lot of players outside of top-tier talent, sometimes it’s nice to have someone like Marchessault you don’t really have to worry about.
16. Kirill Marchenko is up to 20 goals in only 52 games this season with the Columbus Blue Jackets. I’d put Marchenko on your draft board this fall as a late-round consideration. It feels like a 30-goal campaign would be well within reach if he plays a full season.
17. Raise your hand if you saw Alex Lyon coming out of nowhere to carry a few teams to a fantasy championship this week. Lyon was summoned into the Florida Panthers crease due to an illness to Sergei Bobrovsky and promptly had back-to-back great showings. That included a game he stole against the Toronto Maple Leafs as well. Those performances earned him another start against Columbus on Saturday, where Lyon delivered a shutout. That made him 3-0-0 with a .951 save percentage for the week. Not all heroes wear capes.
18. Matias Maccelli is up to second in rookie scoring with 44 points in 59 games, for a 61-point pace. That’s thanks to a run of 14 points in 15 games. The Arizona Coyotes have actually produced a handful of potent fantasy options down the stretch here and you can definitely add Maccelli’s name to the list. The issue with Maccelli is he won’t provide you much outside of points, so if you’re in a multi-cat league there are probably better options out there.
19. Credit Marc-Andre Fleury for working his way back into the Wild crease. Fleury had a rough October, to the point where many were considering dropping him and he was overtaken for a bit by Filip Gustavsson, but he’s been sensational over the past month. The veteran is 8-1-1 in his past 10, giving up two goals or less in six of those contests. Most importantly, he’s worked his way back into an every-other-game rotation with Gustavsson, becoming a huge asset for those rostering him once again.
20. No points in six games for Jake Sanderson, as he’s been thrust further up the Ottawa Senators lineup with Thomas Chabot and Jakob Chychrun injured. I know it’s tough to be patient at this time of year, but Sanderson has 10 shots in his past two games and has averaged about 27 minutes per game during those contests, including a ton of power play time. The points are coming.
