Patrick Sharp (Pre-January – 17 pts in 23 gms, January – 12 pts in 12 gms)

The absence of Kris Versteeg created an opportunity and Patrick Sharp has stepped up to claim, or reclaim, the open spot on Chicago's second line.  He is a big part of the reason why Patrick Kane is still motoring along and gaining on the league leaders with Vertseeg out for the last month. Sharp needs to stay on one of the top lines for this level of production to continue otherwise he becomes very reliant on the power play for his production.

Colorado

Nathan MacKinnon (Pre-January – 22 pts in 37 gms, January – 7 pts in 13 gms)

Mackinnon is not yet seeing the production as of yet but there are positive signs that his season is starting to turn around. The first is that his even strength shots are up to almost three per game bringing his season average up over 2.5. The second is that in January he scored on 6.5% of his shots and had an on-ice shooting percentage of 7%. Both are still really low but are a significant improvement over his numbers thus far this season. Mackinnon has been very 'unlucky' this year and it looks like it is slowly turning around. Now would be as good a time to get him cheap as there ever will be.

Jarome Iginla (Pre-January – 24 pts in 37 gms, January – 9 pts in 13 gms)

The second half bump in production for Iggy has not quite kicked in yet but there are encouraging signs. The best sign of a scoring boom for Iginla is that January was the first month when he averaged three shots per game. After hanging around two shots per game for the first three months of the season this is a welcome sign. The other good sign for Iginla is that the Avs are up from 45 shots per 60 minutes of power play time to 60 shots per 60. Even Iginla's high personal shooting percentage is not outlandish for him. All signs point to the start of Iginla's traditional second half take off. Prepare for launch.

Dallas

Jason Spezza (Pre-January – 26 pts in 36 gms, January – 10 pts in 13 gms)

Spezza started the season hot riding the Seguin express to 12 points in his first 10 games. He cooled down to closer to half a point per game in both November and December but is starting to pick up the pace once again. As his points have picked back up so has Spezza's shooting as he is up near three shots per game. The improvement for Spezza really started in mid-January right as he kicked off his six points in five games streak.

Ales Hemsky (Pre-January – 12 pts in 33 gms, January – 8 pts in 13 gms)

Ales Hemsky looks like he is starting to wake up. After doing his best impression of Chevy Chase in Memoirs of an Invisible Man for the first three months of the season Hemsky wrapped himself in toilet paper so we can all see him again. What other explanation could there be? It could be that he has been re-united with Spezza on a line that also features Erik Cole. Maybe it's the extra shot per game he is taking It probably has something to do with seeing more power play time. The toilet paper thing seems the most plausible though.

Edmonton

Matt Fraser (Pre-January – 4 pts in 26 gms, January – 6 pts in 11 gms)

Anton Lander (January – 7 pts in 12 gms)

A lot has been made of Derek Roy coming to Edmonton and turning around his season and helping Benoit Pouliot to start scoring. The Oilers made some lesser moves as well though. They called up Anton lander and claimed Matt Fraser off waivers. These two relatively no-name additions have formed the basis of a solid third line for the Oilers. They play tougher competition with 30% offensive zone starts and both have very reasonable shooting percentages. The Oilers score just over half the goals when they are on the ice together. If there is a red flag it is that Oiler goalies stop almost 95% of shots when they are on the ice. Thus even though they lose the possession battle they win the goal battle. However, when Purcell is on the line, as opposed to Gazdic or Yakupov, those possession numbers are actually in the Oilers favour. Take a serious look at this duo as there is not much outright luck in their recent production.