If there’s one thing that can be learned from the past few weeks in the NHL, it’s that that the NCAA continues to pump out elite talent —especially the Michigan Wolverines.
On Tuesday, Owen Power (Buffalo) and Matty Beniers (Seattle) made their NHL debuts, then on Wednesday night, Kent Johnson and Nick Blankenburg – both with Columbus – followed suit.
Given how desolate the waiver wire tends to be this late in the season, these NCAA arrivals have come at the perfect time. Most importantly, they’re being tossed into prominent roles right away, which means fantasy relevancy. And lots of it, too.
Unfortunately, these players haven’t been made available in the Sportsnet Fantasy Hockey Pool. Having said that, the next best thing would be to target guys who have direct exposure to them.
Have at it.
Now to your questions:
For rest of season purposes, I do think Power is worth rostering, even though he’s semi-restricted by Rasmus Dahlin. Seriously, it’s the Dallas Stars’ John Klingberg-Miro Heiskanen situation all over again. I mean, it’s a good problem to have if you’re the Buffalo Sabres.
Joking aside, from what I’ve seen of him, the 2021 first overall pick unequivocally possesses the potential, pedigree, and ceiling to be a fantasy relevant player for many years to come. In fact, I think he has a chance to be elite. Furthermore, you’ll have a tough time finding a better blueliner on the waiver right now, so I’d hold onto him. At this juncture, the wire is littered with stop-gap options. Also, kudos to Power for picking up his first NHL point – a primary assist on Alex Tuch’s goal – on Thursday night.
Firstly, from a fantasy perspective, it was good to see Bunting bump the 17-game slump against the Capitals. Even though he’s struggled to produce lately, it’s tough to pass on someone who’s skating regularly with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, two of the hottest players in the NHL in 2022. Furthermore, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone remotely close in value to Bunting on the waiver wire right now. The only thing you can do is hold onto him and hope for another surge to wrap up the fantasy season. Here’s hoping that Thursday night was the start of something.
While it’s always tough to forecast the future, I do feel – fantasy wise – that Dallas could benefit from a change in philosophy behind the bench. That said, it’s tough to dispute Rick Bowness’ lengthy coaching resume. After all, the Stars did go to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020.
But we’re talking fantasy hockey, so in a perfect world, fantasy owners would love to see Dallas revert things back to the Lindy Ruff era, one that featured an abundance of offence. Sadly however, priority No. 1 for Stars general manager Jim Nill is winning a Stanley Cup. Shame.
At the very least, it’ll be fascinating to see how things play out for the Stars. With a handful of games remaining, they’re still in a dog fight to even make the postseason. Anyhow, Bowness’ contract ends after the season, so let the intrigue continue.
The short answer is yes. Simply put, now’s not the time to wait around for player – bonafide stud or not - to get going, especially if you’re in a head-to-head league. Remarkably, the 28-year-old, who’s widely regarded as a top-10 blueliner in the league, has just one point in his past 10 outings. Ouch.
It’s time to move on.
It’s never too early to start preparing for next fantasy season, right? Well, lucky for you, I’ve been on the case for the last little while and have already started construction on my preseason top-250 rankings.
Without revealing too much, I can tell you that Elias Pettersson and Mark Scheifele headline my list of potential bounce-back forwards. On the back end, John Carlson and the aforementioned Dougie Hamilton will be poised for better seasons.
Lastly, Robin Lehner and Connor Hellebuyck are two goaltenders that I certainly will be targeting in my drafts. I hope that cleanses your palate a bit, stay tuned for my preseason package to drop sometime in late August or early September. Cheers.
