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.

Having just bought a house and struggling to move this week, this made for a slightly condensed version of Looking Ahead. Good luck for those of you who made it to round two of the playoffs, and back at it again next Friday!

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

Ivan Barbashev, C, St. Louis (Available in 99 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – Coming off another game with an assist, Barbashev now has four points (1G-3A) in his last five games, playing with former fantasy greats Nail Yakupov and Magnus Paarjarvi. Barbashev on paper doesn’t look like much – averaging under 1SOG/game, only six points on the year, and no power play time – but has the scoring potential and opportunity to put points up down the stretch. The young Russian put up 88G-137A in 173 games in the Q, and has a tremendous wrist shot in the same vein as his teammate Vladimir Tarasenko. With the injury to Paul Stastny being the week-to-week variety, Barbashev should see a small uptick in TOI and have a better opportunity to show Mike Yeo what he’s capable of.

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

Tyler Toffoli, C, Los Angeles (Available in 42 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – With the line of Tanner Pearson – Jeff Carter – Toffoli fully healthy and reunited, the fact that Toffoli  is still available in 42% of Yahoo leagues is disheartening; all Toffoli has done in the month of March (10 games) is put up 2G-5A, average 1BLK, and take 2.3SOG/game. Toffoli’s ice time has been a little up and down, peaking at 19:22 at the start of the month against Toronto, and dipping as low as 11:42 against Washington. That’ll be something to keep an eye on, but with the Kings all but out of the playoffs, expect Toffoli to see more time to let summer start early on the more veteran players.

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

Ryan O’Reilly, C, Buffalo (Owned in 81 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – The suspension to Rasmus Ristolainen will have a large impact on the successful Buffalo power play over the next three games, which will be a large hit to the offensive production coming from former Masterton-nominee Ryan O’Reilly. Although ROR has six points in his last 10 games and pushed over 20 minutes of ice time in all but one, three of those six came on the power play, and two of them came directly from Ristolainen assists.

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

St. Louis – The Blues find themselves on the “Love ‘Em” list for yet another week, as they’re still approaching the meat of their easy schedule – after four straight victories, scoring three or more in all four, the Bluenotes get to face the Coyotes and Avalanche yet again this week. Matching up twice against Arizona means a bonanza for St. Louis owners in their h2h playoffs, as scoring has been coming – and will continue to come – from all four lines.

Anaheim – Anaheim doesn’t have the nicest ending to their regular season, heading into a Western Canada road trip that also has them playing Winnipeg twice (once at home) and Calgary twice (once at home). It’s those late-year matchups against a failing Jets team – especially on the penalty kill – as well as Vancouver and Calgary that will help Anaheim showcase their offensive production as they gear up for the playoffs.

Los Angeles – Another Western Conference in this section, as the Western Conference has the luck of housing both the Coyotes and Avs. LA features not because they get to play Colorado however – no such luck for the Kopitar-led Corsi Gods – but much like Anaheim, the Kings will match up against some very poor Western Canadian teams AS WELL AS the Coyotes. Play Kings with confidence!

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

Buffalo– Jake Guentzel has a large part to play in ignoring Buffalo skaters in the short term, skating out of his blue line with his head turned and getting Rasmus Ristolainen a three-game suspension. (That was a joke). After Rasmus got dinged with his suspension and the current injuries to 50% of the Sabres’ D corps, Buffalo will be in tight during their next five games. Expect to see a steep PP decline with Risto running the point, which is a shame because the Sabres get to play against the Maple Leafs twice in that period.

Winnipeg – In the Jets’ next six games, they have to play three above-average defensive teams in Anaheim, Ottawa, and St. Louis, and won’t have cakewalks against Vancouver or New Jersey.