Erik Gustafsson has four points in his last five games, though there's a healthy scratch mixed in there. Still, his production is up significantly over last season thanks to a bit of luck (5on5 S% at 13.4). One thing I've noticed is that earlier on he was paired up on the power play with another defenseman, but lately he's been on the power play as the lone D. I noted here last year that Gustafsson doesn't do well in a three-forwards/two-defensemen PP unit. He's best when he's solo. So keep an eye on the situation.

Scott Laughton's hat trick gives him nine points in 13 games this year. The checking-line center has been sneakily increasing his fantasy value year over year, posting a points-per-game average of 0.25, 0.39, 0.55 and now 0.69. I don't think he maintains the latter pace, but he will exceed last year's 0.55. And he's doing it without PP time and just 15 minutes of ice time each game. He's starting to have fantasy appeal in more and more leagues.

Joel Farabee, by the way, picked up his third game of three-or-more points this season. He has 10 points in three of his games, and two points in the other 10.

James van Riemsdyk is now on a seven-game points streak, with 13 points in that span. He already has 18 points on the season (13 games). Last year he got his 18^th point in Game 35. The 31-year-old obviously still has gas in the tank. And on a line with Laughton and Farabee is helping all three of them. If this line is doing this and the Flyers can get the likes of Travis Konecny and Oskar Lindblom going, this is a scary team with big scoring threats on three lines.

*

The Alex Ovechkin line continues to dominate. In fact, I think right now they are better than ever. Not because Ovechkin has improved. Actually, Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are finally declining just a little (emphasis on little). No, it's actually because Tom Wilson is peaking. The 6-4, 220-pound power forward finally came into his own late in 2017-18 and into the playoffs. In the Fantasy Guide of 2018 I strongly pushed that a breakout was on the way and he delivered. Were it not for a suspension that year he would have topped 50 points. Then last year a pandemic stopped him from crossing that threshold. Now he's taking that production a little further. He's 26 years old and that's getting close to the sweet spot for big players. With a shortened season. I think he can stay pretty close to that point-per-game mark. Perhaps he'll hit that 50-point threshold after all – and in just 56 games!

The Caps had to add Jakub Vrana to the COVID protocol list and TJ Oshie is out with a UBI. This really exposed Washington's depth. The Caps have the worst pipeline in hockey. No offense to Phillippe Maillet but he would probably rank 25^th on a lot of team forward depth charts. For Washington he's apparently 15^th or 16^th. He did have a good game though, playing with Conor Sheary and Daniel Sprong in limited action. We'll call them the "hungry line".

*

After three points in two games (in which his total combined ice time was 20 minutes), Mikhail Grigorenko was scratched. Coach John Tortorella admitted he wasn't sure about doing it, but he wanted to get Liam Foudy into the lineup. And these are the hockey politics that I warned you about in the Guide with regards to Grigorenko. And because the Jackets recently acquired two forwards for one, the situation has become worse. Foudy is a Golden Boy, so Grigorenko is up against that. This will go on all season, but I think Grigs is making a strong impression and I think he'll be in the lineup for good by the midpoint.

Jack Roslovic now has six points in six games with his new team. Sunday he saw a season-high 19:08 of ice time. Patrik Laine has three points in three games. The winning line combination? Roslovic centering Laine and Cam Atkinson. That one has seemed to work.

Finally Max Domi has been paired up with Oliver Bjorkstrand and has two points in his last two games. With the formula for Laine's line working well, it also makes a second line better. And having Domi and Bjorkstrand together is a good idea. Alexandre Texier is on the other wing.

Seth Jones has points in three straight after starting the season with just a single point in 10 games.

*

Vincent Trocheck picked up a pair of points for his third multi-point effort of the young season (nine games). I admittedly had him written off. Last year, when I thought he would bounce back he showed zero signs of doing so. I figured that the injuries had caught up to him and eroded his skills. But with nine points in nine games, something we haven't seen from him in nearly three years, it looks like he's back. I guess the added time off to heal has done wonders for him. Too bad it's not really rubbing off on linemate Nino Niederreiter. Note that four of Trocheck's points have come on the power play, which is an unsustainable rate. Consider him back to being a 60-point player – just not the 80-point player he's showing right now.

Jordan Staal is up to nine points in seven contests. He already has three PPPts. He had three in all of last season's 68 games. In 2018-19 he had just two. Staal has been seeing more offensive zone starts this year, likely thanks to the addition of Jesper Fast to the team and with Jordan Martinook and Morgan Geekie joining him on an effective defensive line. You are probably going to see a bigger offensive year from Staal even if he didn't have this huge start.

The Carolina power play has absolutely dominated with that unit. This season it had 18 chances in 7:44 of action, including nine shots on goal. So I think they'll roll with that five-man unit for the foreseeable future (Staal, Trocheck, Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Dougie Hamilton). That leaves Teuvo Teravainen out of the mix and on the second PP unit which isn't nearly as effective. Teravainen owners take note.

*

Anthony Mantha was a healthy scratch on Sunday. This must have been a good move because Detroit ended up winning 4-1 after looking horrible all season long.

Part of what has pushed Mantha out of the lineup is the play of 22-year-old rookie Givani Smith, who is making it difficult to keep out of the lineup. Smith compiled two points, seven PIM, two hits and four SOG Sunday in the win. He played with Filip Zadina and Dylan Larkin and that line did very well (obviously). He also saw time with Bobby Ryan and Robby Fabbri. Either way, he already offers value in Hits and PIM – but with these linemates he can also offer some points.

For the first time this season, Thomas Greiss has put together back-to-back Quality Starts. Just one win to show for it, but in 68 shots faced he stopped 65.

*

Chris Driedger has a Quality Start in each of his games so far (five). He started back-to-back games and although he took the loss, he faced 37 shots doing it, stopping 34. I think the coach will keep riding him until he gets out of this 'zone' that he's in. It will probably help Bobrovsky too. Piss him off, make him want it more. Wish I had an explanation for Bobrovsky. He always starts slow, but this year he had something to prove. He's undefeated, but has just one QS in four starts.

Radko Gudas has 30 (!) Hits in his last four games! The guy is on a mission.

Anthony Duclair, who is now pointless in his last four games, has scored two goals on his last 87 shots on goal dating back to last season. He had 21 goals in 123 shots prior to that.

*

Malcolm Subban picked up his first win on Sunday with Chicago. He now has two straight Quality Starts as the team in front of him came together under Kevin Lankinen, and now it looks like the other goalies will get some protection when they come in. Collin Delia was the backup on Sunday, so perhaps he gets his shot next. Chicago has points (win or OTL or SOL) in nine out of their last 10 games.

Alex DeBrincat had a two-point game and that was his fourth one in five games, and fifth one this season. He has 12 points in nine games this year. I love this guy's upside – looks like he's on his way.

*

Anton Khudobin was late for practice Saturday and so he was scratched on Sunday.

Jason Robertson scored the first goal of his NHL career Sunday. Many more to come. He lined up with Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov

*

Chandler Stepheson has been on a line with Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone for 78% of his shifts the entire season so far. That's huge. That's a line that is in stone (pun not intended). He has five points in nine games (including two on Sunday) and that's about what his upside is. Best case, just over a point every two games.

*

Those of you who are regulars in the forum may have caught my thoughts on a potential Tony DeAngelo trade (here). For those who missed it, I'll compile the five or six posts that I typed up:

I believe the insiders when they say that there is trade interest for Tony D and I think, in fantasy leagues where this would help, he will be an asset for a half-year this season. “Maybe” he can even be an asset next season too. But eventually his mouth will get him into trouble and he’ll be Sean Avery’d out of the league over 2-3 years.

Why do I believe there actually is a ton of interest? Well, because we’re not talking about a 55-point defenseman, as many pundits are opining. He was actually on a 64-point pace in his age-24 year. He is one of maybe 6 or 7 defensemen in the entire league with the ability and talent to post 82 points. A point per game. Yep, I said it. And that is rare air. That’s not just some Ryan Suter or Torey Krug. This is elite offense.

Look at it like this – purely on upside not likelihood – name seven defenseman who could get 82 points? I got Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Erik Karlsson (only because he's done it before, is not too old, so if he ever gets fully healthy then him getting back up there wouldn't be too shocking), Morgan Reilly, John Carlson and DeAngelo… After that I start to reach just a little – John Klingberg, Miro Heiskanen, Shea Theodore, and I wonder if Ty Smith could do it? Very early to say. I don’t think Brent Burns can anymore. Other defensemen like Zach Werenski and Adam Fox can probably get to 70 in ideal conditions.

I think if this was Ryan Suter 57-point potential, or Torey Krug 67-point potential, then maybe not so much interest (fine print: I am of course ignoring Suter’s all-around game for this example, please bear in mind I am only discussing offense). But this is 82-point potential. He actually had 51 points in 60 games last season at 24 years of age. That’s too big a sample to be luck, and still two years away from the prime of his career. This guy makes the forwards score more. In terms of just talent, if you can add him to your roster you would be one of just a few teams that has that weapon. Rare! So GMs are weighing that against how easy it will be to put a leash on him. They had the same inner struggle over Sean Avery who, in my opinion, was the best agitator in hockey at the time and possibly Top 10 ever. He could change the momentum of an entire game. But can you control him? To clarify – I don’t think he’s an 80-point defenseman. But he is one of ‘maybe’ seven defensemen who can do it. And that’s why teams are bothering. I don’t think any team would bother risking such baggage if his highest upside was 55-60 points, like a Dumba. But it's 80-plus, which makes it worth discussing. Even in this PC-heavy age. Maybe three teams can take on the full cap hit, many teams would need salary retained, and more than half of the teams out there would need to trade some salary back to make it fit.

Why do I think a team will still give him a chance? DeAngelo didn’t say that Alexandar Georgiev got his "sloppy seconds" the way Avery did. DeAngelo hasn’t done half of the nutty shit that Avery was doing. And Avery kept finding teams. I think a team will try. And I mean really try. If a team acquires him, they aren’t going to pamper his ice time. They need to make the move look good so they will do what they can to make it look good. Otherwise it would become even more of a PR disaster. That’s why I say, for the second half of this season, DeAngelo will be an asset in fantasy leagues.

Very much a bail in keeper leagues. Thank goodness I got out right away on the one team on which I owned him. But shorter term, I think he has 25 good games this season. Perhaps even great games, as in surprising numbers. After that it’s really up to him, but I have little faith in anything long term.

All we can do is apply logic as best we can to play the odds. Everything I say is about playing the odds, even if sometimes those odds are only 51%. You play with the edge you have. And my leanings on this one is that DeAngelo gets a chance on another team and logically he should do well in the beginning. Just don't bet on long term.

*

*

*

See you next Monday.