Top 10 ‘Cold’ Players Early in 2019-20

Tom Collins

2019-11-25

 

One of the hardest things to do in fantasy hockey is keeping an eye on what players are running cold, especially for those of you who have teams in multiple leagues.

After all, you could be trying to keep track of up to 200 players over all of your rosters, plus those you’re thinking of acquiring either through trade or the waiver wire. It’s a lot to keep up with. Luckily, Dobber has you covered with the hot/cold tool, so you can quickly keep an eye on who is running well and who you could consider dropping.

Below are 10 players that are running cold and whether you should be concerned.

 

10. Casey Mittelstadt

There was much hope that Mittelstadt was ready to take the next step this season, but after a healthy start to the season with seven points in 10 games, he is now pointless in 13. He has shots in just five of those games, and six total in that span. He is a minus-six in 13 games, and hasn’t been a plus player in 14 games. He’s barely hitting anyone, his offensive zone starts are way down, and his advanced stats don’t look that impressive either.

 

9. Anders Lee

Many fantasy hockey GMs were expecting Lee to reach at least 50 points this year (he hit that mark in his three previous seasons), but his recent cold snap is putting that streak in jeopardy. Lee has only one point in his last nine games, but there doesn’t seem to be any real reason why his season has gone off the rails. He’s continuing to get power-play time and his ice time hasn’t seen any drastic reduction. So, let’s focus on the bright side. During this cold streak, Lee has snapped 24 shots and has been credited with 24 hits while playing frequently with Mathew Barzal, who has nine points in his last seven games. The team has been winning and scoring when he’s been on the ice, he’s just not picking up any points. This is a fluky cold streak that should be corrected soon.

 

8. John Gibson

The 26-year-old Gibson had an excellent start to the season, but didn’t get many wins because his team isn’t very good. Now he’s in a cold streak that makes him nearly unplayable. In his last six games, Gibson is 1-4-1 with a 4.03 GAA and .872 SV %. In those half-a-dozen games, he’s allowed at least three goals in five of them, and at least five goals in half of them. I’m not worried about Gibson getting back to normal, but I wouldn’t count on a lot of wins.

 

7. Jakub Voracek

We may as well face the fact that the only consistent part of Voracek’s career is his inconsistency. Truthfully, you wouldn’t be surprised if he posted 80-plus points or 55. This year, he’s on pace for 50, which would still be low for even the most critical of skeptics. He has only two points in his last eight games and his ice time over those eight games is an average 16:20 per night. Worst still, in these eight games, he hasn’t been producing much of anything (eight shots, one power-play point and five hits).

 

6. P.K. Subban

How disappointing has Subban been this season? At least in leagues with peripherals, he’s been contributing with 26 PIM, 55 shots, 26 blocked shots and 21 hits in 22 games. However, his five points are awful. Right now, he has only one point in his last 12 games. He’s getting few power-play minutes (on the second unit, he had just eight seconds in a game against Boston last week). His overall ice time the last few games is around 21 minutes per game, a significant drop from a few years ago when he was averaging 26 minutes a night.

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5. Shayne Gostisbehere

A couple of weeks into the season, I wrote that you didn’t need to worry about Gostisbehere’s slow start to the season. Generally speaking, you’re better off waiting until the 20-game mark before deciding on whether to drop someone. Most teams are now at that 20-game mark, and by now, you should be extremely worried if you still own Gostisbehere. The Flyers defenseman has just six points in 22 games, and only one point in his last eight. Not only is he off the top power-play unit, which doesn’t bode well for his cold streak warming up, but he also played a hair under 11 minutes last Thursday night and was a healthy scratch on Saturday night.

 

4. Mark Giordano

Giordano is the latest in a long list of examples of why you shouldn’t overpay for a 36-year-old defenseman coming off a season where he beat his previous high by almost 30 points. After a decent start to this season (12 points in 18 games), Giordano has one point in his last eight. Most of the Flames’ have been cold as the team has just seven goals in their last seven games and have been shutout in three games, but it especially hurts considering just how high Giordano was last season.

 

3. Pekka Rinne

It’s no secret that the Predators are struggling, enough so that head coach Peter Laviolette’s name is creeping up on the hot seat of coaches to be fired. In his last six games, Rinne has one win, four losses, one overtime loss, a .806 SV % and a 5.34 GAA. Because he’s been so cold, he’s only played five games in November (and pulled in three of them), with Juuse Saros picking up four starts. Those are some awful numbers, enough so that it destroys any value that Rinne may have had from his wickedly hot start (when he was 7-0-1 with a 1.74 GAA and .937 SV %).

 

2. Morgan Rielly

The Leafs juggernaut hasn’t been great this season, but all signs indicate that Rielly’s cold streak of two points in 10 games is just a blip. He doesn’t seem to be in any danger of losing his top power-play spot, even if Tyson Barrie is finally producing with the man advantage. In his last 10 games, Rielly is a minus-four, but has taken 29 shots. I’m also wondering how much of the cold streak can be attributed to fatigue. From Oct. 16 to Nov. 2, he averaged 27 minutes a night, including 33 and 30 minutes in the two games just before his cold streak began. His ice time has since corrected itself, and things should turn around for Rielly pretty quickly.

 

1. Johnny Gaudreau

As I mentioned above, the Flames haven’t been scoring much lately, and much of the blame can be laid at the feet of Gaudreau, who has two points in his last seven games. He’s the team’s superstar, and should be able to lead his squad out of this funk. Gaudreau, who has been at least a point-per-game player in each of the last two seasons, is a great example of a buy low. If you own him, you need to ride this cold streak out. If you don’t own him, you want to make a trade offer to the owner in the hopes that he’s jittery and will sell lower than normal.

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