Fantasy Hockey Mailbag: Oilers could get new coach bump during busy schedule

Gene Principe and Elliotte Friedman discuss the Oilers firing of Dave Tippett, the team's poor performance since the break, the reasons for promoting Jay Woodcroft from the AHL, and the impact the move could have on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

Memo to fantasy owners: It’s time to stock up on the Edmonton Oilers.

At least for next week.

Starting on Monday in San Jose, the Oilers will play five times in seven days, otherwise known as the golden unicorn of fantasy schedules. Of course, the Senators are going through that very same stretch right now.

In the Sportsnet Fantasy Hockey Pool, you may want to find a way to roster both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Evander Kane is another.

Quite frankly, this busy slate could prove to be a blessing in disguise for the Oilers. The coaching change bump is a thing. Just ask the Vancouver Canucks.

Now to your questions:

Bottom line, it’s tough to replace a player of the ilk of Brad Marchand. Just ask the Boston Bruins, who were shelled 6-0 by the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night as the winger served game one of his six-game suspension.

If you temper your expectations, you’ll have no problem finding an adequate short-term replacement for the suspended Marchand. Most importantly, I think the key is to target players who will play a lot between now and Marchand’s projected return: Feb. 24 in Seattle. That’s why Alex Tuch and Tim Stuetzle would be atop my list of players to contemplate scooping up off waivers. Both Ottawa and Buffalo play four times next week. As you’re all aware, I like Tuch a lot.

Furthermore, Boone Jenner, Adrian Kempe and Jared McCann are three other options worth grabbing.

Hold on both.

Starting with Martin Necas. Even though he’s struggled lately, it’s tough to pass up on someone who routinely plays in the top-six for a stacked team. The significant attachment to Sebastian Aho alone is enough for me to ride this cold streak out. Be patient.

As for Conor Garland, I consider him the more droppable of the two. Having said that, I’m not sure you’ll be able to find a long-term upgrade for him on waivers. Not for anything but I’ve liked his game coming off the COVID/All-Star break. In addition to that, I’m intrigued to see what Jim Rutherford does leading up to the March 21 trade deadline. Garland could be on the move, so keep that in mind moving forward, too.

Stand pat.

Tough one but I’d go with Alex Nedeljkovic and Ville Husso.

For starters, you need stability and who better than a bona fide number one like Nedeljkovic to give you that. Full transparency, picking the second guy was a little bit tougher. It was between Kaapo Kahkonen and Husso. Because Binnington has struggled for such a long period of time, I went with Husso. Quite frankly, at this point, I think it’s his net until further notice. They need to try to find a way to get Binnington right. He’s been terrible.

Also, a strong case can be made to keep Kahkonen, too. I just think he’ll face way more resistance for playing time with Cam Talbot than Husso will with Binnington.

The simple answer is Justin Faulk. He’s having a good season; I just don’t see him on the same level as the other guys mentioned. Enough said.

As long as Ryan Hartman’s playing with Kirill Kaprizov, I think you have no choice but to sit tight and hope for the best. Your concerns are warranted, however. Before this season, we had no track record or precedence for this kind of display. You start to wonder if this is just Hartman merely coming back to reality a bit.

At any rate, just be cognisant and exercise patience for now. Monitor closely.

Yeah, the Blues have so much depth that it almost hurts the individual fantasy value across of many of their marquee players.

David Perron is a prime example of that. By his standards, he’s had just an average season to date. And that shocks me considering he’s in a contract year. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. Having said all that, there’s still plenty of season ahead. Due to his track record and resume, I’m sticking by Perron’s side. In fact, I’d say now’s a good time to execute a buy low as we inch closer to the fantasy playoffs.

In summary, I like Perron a lot. If you own him, hang onto him. If you don’t, make a move to obtain him. Don’t forget, all you need is for him to get hot at the right time. Fingers crossed!

With Tuukka Rask now out of the picture, I’m really intrigued to see what happens with Boston’s goaltending. Based on pedigree, I’d say Linus Ullmark currently has the upper hand, but I wouldn’t sleep on the youngster Jeremy Swayman. All he’s done at the NHL level is impress.

Before Rask showed up, Swayman was hovering around the 100-110 fantasy rank mark. Now that he’s back for good, I don’t see any reason why he can’t return to that range once again with the potential to maybe even move up. For what it’s worth, I fully expect Boston to keep both goalies involved moving forward. Each will get their fair share of starts.

As for ranking, I think the 15-20 range is fair for Swayman. He definitely has the potential to move up. We’ll see what happens.

Similar to Swayman, I think Pavel Francouz holds some legitimate fantasy value for the rest of the season.

Since the holiday break, Colorado has been pretty much platooning Darcy Kuemper and Francouz. In order to keep both goalies fresh, I expect that pattern to continue within reason. All things being equal, however, I still think it’s highly unlikely that Francouz grabs the No. 1 job outright. After all, there’s a reason why Colorado paid the steep price they did to acquire Kuemper from Arizona last summer.

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