Jump on Brayden Point if you need help now.

All fantasy owners need help in the short term AND the long term. The Looking Ahead feature identifies one player to plug into lineups in the short term, a second to invest in for the long term, a third to bench for the coming week, and a fourth who will struggle to meet expectations for some time. All players discussed are selected based on their upcoming schedule.

The Immediate Fix (Grab this guy and use him for the next several days)

Brayden Point, C, Tampa Bay (Available in 97 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – With injuries to Tyler Johnson, Vladislav Namestnikov and Cedric Paquette, Brayden Point is essentially the only centre left on the Lightning – Jonathan Drouin has moved from the wing to center the second line, and Gabriel Dumont and Byron Froese are taking up 3^rd and 4^th duties. What that means in the short term is a guaranteed role on either the top line (with Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov) or, when Johnson returns, a more sheltered spot with Drouin and Alex Killorn. After scoring in back-to-back games against Ottawa and the Rangers and playing over 20 minutes/game since the centre injuries hit, Point has demonstrated what his production can be when opportunity strikes. Pick him up until the injury situation clears up, and maybe hang onto him as Tampa stretches for the playoffs.

The Building Block (Buy now, sit back and enjoy the production)

Radim Vrbata, RW, Arizona (Available in 79 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – Although not to be used in leagues that track plus/minus, Vrbata is out-scoring much higher-owned players like Jeff Skinner, William Nylander, and is tied with 94%-owned Logan Couture. With 50 points already on the season and 203 SOG, Vrbata is a necessary add for a stretch run, playing on the first line of the Coyotes with Christian Dvorak and Max Domi. After playing most of his season with the departed Martin Hanzal, Vrbata has some capable young goal-scorers to play with in another lost season, and since the trade deadline (six games), he has 1G-2A-14SOG.

The Odd Man Out (His short term value is cause for concern)

Jakub Voracek, RW, Philadelphia (Owned in 94 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – With six points in his last 10 games, Voracek doesn’t seem like he should be sat out, but one of the keys to Voracek’s production is his time on the power play: 20 of his 54 points have come on the man advantage, which is fitting with the rest of the Flyer forwards this year. The reason to start to get concerned about a player with the excellent stats Voracek has is that his role is changing – against Pittsburgh this week, Voracek was relegated to the second power play unit, replaced by Ivan Provorov (who is conversely a great short term pickup). Without that first unit time, Voracek saw his 7^th-lowest ice time of the year against the Penguins.

The Anchors (They’ll do nothing but disappoint even over the long haul)

Jordan Eberle, RW, Edmonton (Owned in 70 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – Steve Laidlaw blew up my spot a little bit with this tweet, from earlier in the week:

How is Eberle still owned in 70% of Yahoo leagues? Is RW really that thin?

— Stephen Laidlaw (@SteveLaidlaw) March 14, 2017

Jordan Eberle being 70% owned in Yahoo! leagues both speaks to the lack of RW depth in the league, but it also shows that people aren’t paying attention. Coming into the year, the expectation for Eberle was 60+ points riding shotgun to Connor McDavid, but Eberle has only played 38% of his total ice time with McDavid, and now finds himself on a tweener line centered by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. After scoring 47Pts in 69 nice games last year (shooting 14.5%), Eberle is far below that pace, sitting at 14G-26A-40Pts in 68 games (shooting 8.4%). Although that dip in shooting percentage should level out, Eberle’s ice time is the most cause for concern: he’s averaging 16:00 on the year which is a full minute and 41 seconds lower than his rookie season, and over three minutes less than his two 60+ point seasons.

Love ‘Em (These squads are sure to pay dividends in the coming days)

Chicago – Every week someone ends up getting to play Colorado, so if that team plays enough games there’s a good chance they’ll pay dividends that week. The Blackhawks fit that bill, with a home game against the Avs after a quick Eastern Canada trip that sees them play the Leafs – another plus matchup – on Hockey Night in Canada. Not only do the Hawks play Colorado during this stretch, they also face the Stars who have given up 38 in their last ten.

St. Louis – The Blues recently rattled off five straight wins before losing to Anaheim on Wednesday, mostly on the backs of the first line of Jaden Schwartz–Vladimir Tarasenko–Paul Stastny. They’ll try to regain that momentum this week by playing…the Avalanche. Beyond that road game, the Blues ALSO get two games against the Coyotes (one at home, one on the road), and play Vancouver in the middle of the week. Their push to keep their wild card spot shouldn’t get much resistance.

Florida – Losing Aaron Ekblad will end up hurting Florida defensively, as evidenced by the 64 shots against in the one and a half games without him. What that means for the fantasy relevant Panthers – and there are a surprising amount of them – is a lot of high-pace games, and although their opponents aren’t that enticing in their next slate of games, they have the potential to be “last goal wins”. Beyond the tougher games against the Rangers and Penguins, Florida also gets the benefit of playing Carolina, Arizona, and Buffalo in this period.

Leave ‘Em (These squads will leave fantasy owners sorely disappointed in the short term)

Dallas– Dallas has a fairly good remaining schedule in terms of games played (six between the 17^th and 28^th), but that includes games against Calgary, San Jose, and a road/home back-to-back against Chicago and San Jose a second time. Obviously, this has been a disappointing season for the Stars from a defensive standpoint, but they’ve also been a disappointment offensively – they currently sit 18^th in the league (189), compared to their 82-game total of 289 last season.  

Ottawa – Ottawa also gets six games, but it’s their schedule that’s ugly: four divisional games, including a home/road back-to-back against the Canadiens. That back-to-back just makes up two of the three times that Montreal and Ottawa face off, and on top of that, Ottawa will be playing the Penguins and Bruins in this tightly-packed week. With Mark Stone and Craig Anderson still injured, the Senators have tough sledding ahead.

NY Islanders– After getting scored on 36 times in their last ten games (not including last night’s game against Winnipeg), the Islanders have a hard stretch upcoming over their next five games – all five come against the top half the league, including games against the second and third best, Pittsburgh and Columbus. Beyond John Tavares and the up and coming Joshua Ho-Sang, there’s not much fantasy relevance in Brooklyn over the next while.

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