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Jori Lehtera returned to the Blues line-up and – although I’m posting this before Frozen Pool is updated – it appears he stepped pretty much back into his old spot on the "STL" line both at even strength and on the PP, but went scoreless.

 

I think he'll benefit from the rest, what with him having never played more than 67 games in a season, and no more than 57 since 2008-09. Pencil him in for 18-20 points in the team's final 28 games if he keeps his PP ice time and coveted spot in the top six.

 

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Don’t look now, but AHL castoff Victor Stalberg was called up, actually inserted into the line-up, and hit the score sheet, to give him more points (four) on the season than millions (3.5) he's making. But hey – Nashville likely realizes it could always be worse.

 

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Add me to the list of those floored by the performance of Mike Fisher, who returned from a major injury without the benefit of training camp and proceeded, at age 34, to take only 26 games to equal the 21 points he posted in 38 contests during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign! And he's doing this while getting 2+ Hits and roughly one Blocked Shot per game!

 

As crazy as it sounds, I don't see him as a "sell high" player. For one, he's been a "tweener" (especially in points-only leagues) for so long that you're not likely to get value for him in return. And by tweener I mean guys like Kris Versteeg, Clarke MacArthur, or Curtis Glencross, who seem destined to finish most seasons with 45-55 points and do fine as a last on the bench type of guy in non-deep leagues but who you could rarely convince another GM to take in a trade even if they exceed their usual totals. Admit it – before this current run, you'd have lumped Fisher in with these guys in points-only leagues.

 

I think the key with Fisher is this being the first time in eons he doesn't have to be a primary offensive weapon and focal point, and thus also doesn't have to contend with the shutdown defensive combos that were shadowing him in recent years. If Nashville is able to continue deploying Fisher in a similar manner next season, then I see no reason why he can't push 60 points, as he's got plenty of motivation and, seemingly, still a good amount of gas left in his tank.

 

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A rare goal for Brett Connolly on Tuesday.  If you're a Connolly owner, you have my sympathies. He has to bear the pressure of being a former sixth overall pick amid a team where the second (1B?) line consist of an undrafted yet essentially point per game center (Tyler Johnson), a 208th overall pick (Ondrej Palat), and the 58th overall pick (Nikita Kucherov) from the year after Connolly was selected.

 

Connolly hasn't earned top six time, but arguably that's because he wasn't given top six time to earn his top six time. In fact, until Tuesday it'd been over a month since he had more than 12:20 of ice time in a game. Even still, he's averaging over 2:00 on the PP per game for the seson, so his lack of production can't be blamed entirely on lack of opportunity.

 

He needs a ticket out of town, and I can see that coming as part of an offseason deal where Tampa tries to land a skilled blueliner to provide rearguard scoring punch to compliment Victor Hedman.

 

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One quick Steven Stamkos tidbit – since December 2nd, Stamkos has played in 31 games but has only two instances of points in consecutive games, one with points in two straight and another where he strung together a four game streak.  No wonder he’s mired below point per game numbers.

 

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Despite the loss, it’s hard to find fault in the Wild going back to Devan Dubnyk in the second game of a back-to-back, and he certainly wasn’t at fault for the defeat. They need every win they can get and Dubnyk had yet to lose in a Wild sweater. Of course the risk is he burns out, but with him playing in only his 30th game of the season he should be able to withstand a heavy workload for a while.

 

Plus, although the Wild gave up 34 shots on Tuesday, they went into the contest still leading the league in fewest shots against per game, at 26.8, which will help lessen the workload on Dubnyk.

 

Perhaps the Wild eke out the win if they hadn’t lost Jason Zucker (who’ll be out three months) and Ryan Carter (out a month).  But at least they nabbed an OTL point.

 

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There's ice cold, and then there's Toby Enstrom, who before scoring a goal last night had been mired in a stretch of one point in 11 games. Enstrom is basically on the Martin Havlat trajectory in that he was once such a talented player who was slowed by injuries, rendering him still able to play, but as a shell of his former self. All that's left now is for the ice time to dry up, taking what's left of his production with it.

 

Placing all that aside, did Enstrom himself decide to go by "Toby" (instead of Tobias), or did nhl.com assign the nickname to him? I can't figure that one out at all. But Toby?! Seriously?!

 

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Playing the undermanned (see below) Oilers, the Islanders won, with Travis Hamonic once again being the PP ice time king for defensemen, but this time managing only an even strength assist.

 

And don't look now but former fourth overall pick – yikes! – Thomas Hickey had two points and should improve upon his career high of 22 from last season. Still not worth owning though.

 

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Not only will Edmonton be without Taylor Hall for several weeks (with Benoit Pouliot joining Hall on IR), but you can add Ben Scrivens to the list of walking wounded, in his case with a hamstring problem that will keep him out "a bit". There's no timetable I'm writing this, but since he's a goalie on a terrible team don't expect him to be rushed back.

 

Nice to see 29 year old undrafted, career AHLer Ryan Hamilton pot his first career goal. But before you get designs on picking him up, read the previous sentence again, and add the fact that it's Edmonton. Nuff said.

 

Nail Yakupov is now riding a two game point streak, which sounds sad but is even worse when you consider it's only the third time this season that he tallied a point in two consecutive games. Ladies and gentlemen – your 2012 first overall pick!

 

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On another Edmonton note, those of you who noticed the WONABL teaser at the top of the ramblings and wondered what I meant – wonder no further. And it actually has to do with Edmonton, as Justin Schultz has officially entered one of my favorite fantasy situations – he's a "W.O.N.A.B.L." guy, which stands for "was overhyped, now a buy low.

 

In Schultz's case, his WONABL status came from entering the league amid immediate expectations that he's fallen short of meeting; but the term also applies to players who were overhyped free agent signings but haven't put up the numbers that were expected of them, or guys traded to new teams only to find themselves having a tough adjustment.

 

In Schultz's case, he's actually doing okay all things considered, especially given the sad state of affairs in Edmonton. Going into last night, his 21 points equated to roughly 17% of Edmonton's 123 goals, which would translate to nearly 30 points on top five offensive team. And he was only a -4 despite Edmonton entering Tuesday with a -56 goal differential. Plus, if – as expected – Edmonton does whatever they can to get a true #1 rearguard, that will let Schultz just focus on offense, perhaps to the tune of 40+ points next season.

 

But those who owned Schultz are likely fed up, and those who never have probably see him as a guy to avoid in draft or trade. That leaves an opening to get Schultz for great value.

 

Other WONABL guys for next season might include Thomas Vanek, Jason Spezza, Thomas Hertl, and Christian Ehrhoff. But keep in mind I'm not saying to expect miracles from WONABLs. The key is they should all be great value in terms of what you'll have to pay to get them versus what they should be able to produce for you.

 

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Something I noticed over the All-Star break is Evgeni Malkin seems to have become more of a consistent scorer, yet also one who's less prone to big games. Case in point – in 48 games he only has three with more than two points (three points in each). That's a far cry from his normal scoring pattern:

 

2013-14 = 60 total games (three with three points, two with four points)

 

2012-13 = 31 games (three with three points)

 

2011-12 = 75 games (four with three points, one with four points, four with five points)

 

The good news is he's still at 1.08 points per game for 2014-15, although that's below his 1.20 career average. Maybe this sounds farfetched, but I wonder if this is part of a mission to reshape Malkin's game to try and keep him healthier.

 

Maybe Malkin and/or management see him as more valuable to the Pens, and more likely to have a longer and continuously productive NHL career, if he plays 75+ games and scores 80-90 points per season than if – like last season (when he posted 72 points in 60 games) – he scores at a higher pace but ends up missing more games. And sure enough, even with his recent injury, Malkin is on pace to play 70+ games (jinx alert #2?), which would be only the second time he's hit that mark since 2008-09.

 

To put this in fantasy perspective, this all might be an effort to save Malkin from being this decade's Peter Forsberg. Let me know in the comments if you think there's anything to this theory.

 

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In waivers news, Martin Brodeur was placed on unconditional waivers to allow the Blues to terminate his contract. Happy trails Marty! I hate that it all ended the way it did, but in five years this season will be just a footnote.

 

And the Pens waived Marc Arcobello, likely owing to the fact that he's on a one way contract. I'd say it's 50/50 that he gets claimed this season; but even if that doesn't happen Arcobello will latch on somewhere before 2015 training camp, on either a minor league deal or a try out, so don't dump him yet if you've held onto him this long.

 

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Hoping to get some Wings insight from coach Mike Babcock? I was, so I read the five questions piece with him on nhl.com. And guess what – I learned pretty much nothing of note, just like when he was on HBO's 24/7 a couple of years ago. Nothing against Babcock – but he's all business and probably close to the last NHL coach I'd most want to drink with (Bruce Boudreau being the top choice).

 

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I'm surprised more attention hasn't been paid – in general and on DobberHockey – to the announcement that 35 new analytic metrics will be coming to nhl.com on February 20, which is now just over a week away and is part of major improvements to the site. And for those who doubted that analytics have truly arrived to stay, seeing them come to nhl.com is sort of the like fantasy hockey equivalent of your aunt starting to wear yoga pants.

 

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I’ll end by noting that the first instinct of too many poolies this time of year (not surprisingly given some of what I said above), is to turn up their noses at teams like Buffalo, Carolina, New Jersey, Edmonton, Arizona, with the logic being that they just gutted their already bad teams by trading away much of their remaining talent, so won't they be even worse now? The answer is yes in terms of real hockey, but less than you'd think when it comes to fantasy hockey.

 

Think of it this way – in 2013-14, aside from Buffalo, who scored a pitiful 157 goals, the four next worst offenses were Florida (196 goals), Vancouver (196 goals), New Jersey (197 goals), and Edmonton (203 goals). Basically, each averaged roughly 2.4 goals per game, so for the last 30 games (i.e., roughly how many contests are left for most teams), that meant roughly 72 goals.

 

If we look at the teams that were right in the middle of the pack for goals scored in 2013-14, it was Winnipeg (15th, with 231 for the season) and the Islanders (16th with 225). That means they each scored about 2.8 goals per game, which would translate to 84 goals in 30 games.

 

That translates to a difference of only 12 goals scored (i.e., two goals every five games) for middle of the road offensive teams versus the nearly worst of the worst between now and the end of the year. And beyond that, the guys who remain on the worst teams after they conduct their fire sales might end up giving you better production than many players on better teams.

 

Look no further than last year's Panthers squad as an example.

 

On March 4th and 5th of 2014, Florida traded away Shawn Matthias and Marcel Goc; and although neither had been logging much Ice Time or scoring many points, the move clearly lit a fire under several players post-trade. Nick Bjugstad tallied 14 points in 23 games – one more point than he'd scored in 32 games during December, January, and February. Even more remarkable was the effect on Jimmy Hayes, who amassed 13 points in 23 games after getting a mere five points in 30 games during the previous months of the season.

 

In short, terrible teams don't score that much less than middle of the pack squads; and someone on even terrible teams has to score. Do yourself a favor and watch the league's worst squads in early March, as you could see a few guys step up and produce stats that might just be better than what the last guy on your bench would otherwise give you.

 

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Austin Wallace has his newest prospect ramblings up here.

 

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If you’ve read this far, thanks and see you next time, whenever that might be.