How much fantasy value will Markstrom have down the stretch?

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby are in uncharted territory. 

Pittsburgh used to be a goldmine of fantasy assets, but the Pens are suddenly faced with an uncertain future. Do they re-tool or rebuild with Crosby and some other aging talent in the fold? Or do they just try to reload and keep pushing with what they have now? It’s not an easy decision. 

The second option, though, seems like it’s destined to be disastrous. We’ve gotten a glimpse this season of what life’s going to be like for the Penguins if they don’t make major changes and it’s not pretty. They were never really close to contending for a playoff spot and prior to beating the lowly San Jose Sharks on Thursday, they were losers of six of their past seven games, scoring only two goals in four games. 

That said, Crosby is still playing at a high level. He’s averaging a point per night and still plays a cerebral game that seems like it’s going to age really well. The question is, where would you draft Crosby next season if he remains on the Penguins and the team continues to be in this state? As good as he is, at some point regression is going to be inevitable for a player that will be 37 at the start of next year. 

It feels like a near impossibility, but the best thing for Crosby’s future fantasy value might be in a different location. As difficult as that may be to digest. 

Time for your questions:

It depends on how limited your keeper spots are, but I see no problem in keeping all three. If I had to put them in an order, I’d go Adam Fantilli, Trevor Zegras and Marco Rossi. Fantilli has the most upside of the bunch in my opinion, as I think the Columbus Blue Jackets are going to be strong in a few years when all their young talent develops around the same time. In addition to his strong offensive abilities, Fantilli is already showing he can provide decent shot volume and hits coverage.

This is something I’ve been considering myself, actually. There are pros and cons obviously but I think the positives of dropping him are starting to outweigh the negatives. It should be noted that a drop wouldn’t be reflective on Jacob Markstrom’s play as much as the circumstances around him.

For starters, the Calgary Flames have traded away half their defence corps, in Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin, and we’re already starting to see the impact of that. Before a big win against Vegas, Calgary had lost its past three games by a combined score of 18-5 and it’s tough to see things improving greatly given how much the team sold prior to the deadline. That said, the Flames do have a decent schedule to start the fantasy playoffs, with five of their next six games coming against Montreal, Washington, Buffalo, Chicago and St. Louis, all opponents that Calgary should at least be able to hold their own against. 

The other issue is Markstrom’s health. He’s currently dealing with an injury and he’s had a few different ailments this year. It’s no secret the Flames may move him this summer, so there is a risk Calgary could just opt to shut Markstrom down for the season to protect their asset and give Dustin Wolf an extended look. I’m not saying that’s likely, but it’s at least a possibility. 

By dropping him, you could utilize that spot to grab a goalie with a good matchup if you need and an extra skater to help with those categories in the meantime. It all depends on how valuable goalies are in your league. I’m not saying you should drop Markstrom, but it’s definitely something that shouldn’t be ruled out.

The Minnesota Wild have certainly found something with that unit and I’d bet they stay together going forward. We’ve always wanted to see what Kirill Kaprizov could do with a more capable centre, but it’s Joel Eriksson Ek that may be benefitting the most. We knew Eriksson Ek was tremendous for category coverage and now we’re seeing his offence reach new heights. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility to see Eriksson Ek reach 80 points over a full season on the Kaprizov line if he stays healthy. That puts him into keeper status in most leagues or a very high draft pick.

It depends on your league. If it’s just a points league I’d say there’s no issue with dropping Boone Jenner. He’s probably not going to provide the production offensively this season on a consistent basis. In a multi-cat league, though, I think I would hold him. Jenner is still getting big minutes and is great for faceoff wins, hits and shots. If it’s a deep league I don’t think you’d find a better replacement for Jenner’s category coverage.

If it were me, I would keep the tandem. I don’t see one of Ilya Samsonov or Joseph Woll taking over the net the rest of the way, as I think the Toronto Maple Leafs want to get both of them in a rhythm. You’d be getting a decent chance at a quality start every night from either of them as the Leafs are a good regular season team. I also worry a little about Alexandar Georgiev. His save percentage has been a little inconsistent this year, so it would be nice to have an extra option for insurance.

It’s TJ Oshie for me. He has a tough time staying healthy and the Washington Capitals aren’t loaded with talent in their forward group anymore. All the others you listed there have more upside and better players around them.

I’m always a fan of taking the extra game when the players are pretty comparable. Bowen Byram has the extra game and he’s looked really good since joining the Buffalo Sabres, playing big minutes with Rasmus Dahlin on the top pair. He’s had a couple of multi-point games, been great for shot volume and not bad for hits either. I don’t think Josh Manson and Devon Toews are that much better than Byram that they’d be worth taking with one fewer game.

Tough call, but I’m dropping Erik Karlsson out of that group. The Penguins are trending in the wrong direction and Karlsson in particular has just two points in his past nine games. The forwards you listed there are too valuable and dropping a goalie would leave you a little thin. You could probably survive without Karlsson in the playoffs, especially in a league that size.

The aforementioned Byram would be good to look at, as well as Sonny Milano for Washington. Milano has been scoring lately and the Caps have a great Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday schedule. Evgeny Kuznetsov could also be worth taking a chance on with Carolina playing four times. 

In goal, I’d try and grab one of the Seattle guys. Philipp Grubauer or Joey Daccord could be valuable as the Kraken play Buffalo, Montreal and Arizona next week. Even beyond that, they play Anaheim twice the following week if you make it that far.

Marc-Andre Fleury has been excellent since the new year and is outplaying Filip Gustavsson lately, so as long as the Minnesota Wild are in the playoff race, I think Fleury is going to play a fair bit. The challenge is that he’s 39, meaning it seems unlikely that the Wild will completely turn the net over to Fleury and give him like 75 per cent of the starts. Gustavsson will still play, but Fleury has emerged as a quality option to roster to finish out the season.

He certainly could. With the Flames losing a bunch of defencemen, someone is going to fill that void of ice time and opportunity. So far Daniil Miromanov is getting the first crack on the top power-play unit and Calgary recently signed him to an extension, so you know the Falmes see him in their future plans. Gambling on Miromanov is a low-risk, high-reward move to me.

I’m going with Byram given how good he’s looked since joining Buffalo. With Aaron Ekblad injured and the way the Arizona Coyotes are trending, I think Byram has the most upside. 

I’m more concerned about the Red Wings overall than Alex Lyon, but that said, if the team doesn’t pick it up around him it’s going to be hard for him to play the way he was earlier in the season. At this time of year you need to trust your goalies won’t destroy your stats with one bad outing and right now Lyon is struggling to deliver anything close to a quality start. 

Lucas Raymond had a big game earlier this week and when Dylan Larkin returns it should balance out the lines more. I’d give him a little more time.

I’m usually in favour of the extra game but in this case, I think I’d go with Logan Stankoven. Oshie always carries a lot of injury risk and Strankoven has looked really good so far since being called up. The interesting thing is that Stankoven plays Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, so maybe you could add someone for Monday, Tuesday and then drop for Stankoven to get five games out of it.

Overall, not great. No goalie has been able to have success in New Jersey this season and Jake Allen isn’t a huge upgrade to me. I think he’s probably the best option they have and will get some decent playing time, but the Devils really haven’t been good this season and are barely hanging on in the playoff race. They’ll probably want to mix in Kaapo Kahkonen here and there, too. I think I would use Allen as a spot starter if it’s a friendly matchup.

I’ll go with Sean Monahan, Logan Stankoven, Jack Roslovic, Adam Henrique and Jenner. Henrique on the third line isn’t ideal right now but if he gets in the top six, he could be really impactful. Roslovic is intriguing as well playing on the New York Rangers' top line with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. He could be really valuable down the stretch if he can hold that spot.