Alexis Lafreniere has been a bit of a conundrum for fantasy owners. I know Ian touched on him Saturday, but I want to expand on it a bit. We don't know in advance what we're getting from the top picks of the latest draft. Yes, first overall almost always makes the team right away. Ditto for second overall. But what they do from there will vary greatly. Most of them will 'eventually' become the player you want them to be. People were, as Ian noted, frustrated with Nathan MacKinnon even after four years in the league. Lafreniere will be fine. So will Jack Hughes. So will Kaapo Kakko. The 'when' part is the question.

The only draft-year players who seem to help fantasy leagues right away are the elite ones. I really felt Lafreniere fell into this category. His long-term keeper value is through the roof, don't doubt that for a second. But why the slow start? I think too much pressure was put on him early on. He was put with Artemi Panarin right away, and then Mika Zibanejad. He squeezed the stick too tight, couldn't put up the expected numbers, and eventually slipped to a checking line. And that's where he was able to just soak it in. No pressure. And that was good for him. On Saturday he was eased back out of that quiet depth role and tried again with Panarin. And this time – Zibanejad was on his line too. It resulted in a goal, so maybe things are turning around for him. His 2.9 5on5 S% certainly indicates that that he's had about as terrible puck luck as it gets. But then again – Kakko had similar 5on5 S% a year ago, so that doesn't necessarily mean that his luck will turn around within the same season. But if Lafreniere can stay on that line and the jitters are behind him, he can still be a fantasy asset this year.

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Sergei Bobrovsky took the loss Saturday, but he actually posted a Quality Start. And it was his third good start out of four games (the fourth being a Really Bad Start – against Tampa). Maybe sitting on the bench and watching Chris Driedger kick ass is getting the competitive juices flowing. Right now I have little confidence in it (as far as wagers go, I'd still bet against Bobrovsky next game), but at least there's a glimmer of hope for Bob owners. For what it's worth, Chris Driedger's pace has been unsustainable. It's impossible to have a Quality Start every single time out and we're already seeing signs of slowing. His 0.937 SV% in his first five games is far superior to his 0.908 SV% in his last three. The Florida goaltending situation will be interesting to watch over the next several weeks.

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Some humble pie for me to eat. What is happening to Kevin Lankinen is what I had guessed would happen to Collin Delia. It was a game of musical chairs. The Blackhawks would come together, eventually, and wins would happen. Whoever is in net when the music stops – wins. Well, it was Lankinen. Delia had his shot – two starts, coughing up five goals each. Lankinen and Malcolm Subban also gave up five goals in each of their first starts. But Lankinen was the first to snag a win and a great game. The music stopped. And now the team is playing great. So great that even Subban (who is really not a good goalie) is putting up Quality Starts. And because the team is exceeding expectations, it will take an injury for Delia to get in on that action. The tough part for Delia is – he'd be racking up the wins right now if he was in net when the team pulled together. As always, the only thing we can do as fantasy owners is use the information we have to maximize the odds in our favor. In this case, the positives for Delia were: contract, waiver situation, last year's results (All-Star, took back starting job from Lankinen after slow start). And the negatives for Lankinen were: waiver situation (doesn't need to go on them), contract (not a one-way deal), lost the job to Delia last season in Rockford.

But in the end, I was wrong. Delia not only lost his chance to Lankinen, but Lankinen grabbed it with authority. He spiked the ball right through the floor. He has become a top five goalie own in fantasy hockey so far this season. In fact, in my one league's scoring settings he's actually FIRST. And I had put my chips on the other guy. Fail.

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Do you think that fail was due to my bragging (at the start of the season) about my luck with calling goalies? Sometimes karma strikes down the cocky.

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Andreas Johnsson is a player who I've always liked. I felt he has some good upside, but was looking like a potential Band-Aid Boy. He seems to be heating up now, after going pointless in his first five games with his new team. Since then he has six points in eight games, with ice time that has crept upward. They seem to really like him with Jack Hughes, which bodes well for his future too. He has played more than half of his ES shifts with Hughes. Sunday, the duo had Kyle Palmieri on the other wing.

Nikita Gusev returned from COVID Protocol to score his first goal of the season. He also hit the post on another shot. Has the real Gusev finally arrived for this season? He had just an assist in nine games prior to the time off. He's a much better player than that. Sunday he played with the third line and still managed to score.

Janne Kuokkanen was starting to catch my eye after posting three points in a game last week. It gave him points in three straight games and four of five when he did that. But then he went two games without a point and was a healthy scratch Sunday. Still, the 22-year-old sits in my Top 100 for fantasy prospect forwards.

The WSH-NJD game featured a rare goalie matchup. Both Craig Anderson and Aaron Dell saw their first starts of the season. Neither played terrible, though Dell was slightly better and Anderson got the win.

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TJ Oshie picked up three points on Sunday, all three coming on the power play. He also won five out of seven faceoffs – which is a bonus for leagues that need those.

Jakub Vrana is still fighting for respect, which is just frustrating for fantasy owners. Why he needs to prove anything at this point is beyond me. His 12:45 of ice time Sunday was his second lowest of the season. He didn't play in the final nine minutes of the contest, making me wonder if he was injured as it included two power plays.

Lars Eller – 5 points in his last 6 games 🔥

This includes 14 SOG, 3 PPP and 37 FOW during this stretch. Really effective in leagues that don't include plus/minus.https://t.co/iMK6uUsFk1

— Frozen Tools (@FrozenTools) February 22, 2021

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Jonathan Drouin left Sunday's game with an injury. Not what his fantasy owners needed to see during a possible redemption year. No word on the severity.

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Matt Murray rebounded from a poor outing to put up one of his best. He's not going to get many wins of course, but he's had strong outings in seven of his last eight appearances. Although he is 2-5-0 in that eight-game span, his GAA is 2.70 and SV% is 0.911. And while those numbers aren't great, they also include the thrashing he took against the Leafs last week (six goals, 26 SOG)

Drake Batherson has three points and seven SOG in his last two games. He's clicking with Tim Stutzle and that's not a bad spot to be. If those two can hit it off early in their careers, Batherson's future obviously gets brighter. And Josh Norris seems to be hitting it off with Brady Tkachuk. Sunday's game gave us a glimpse of the potential future for Ottawa's scoring lines. Though Connor Brown (played on the Norris line) and Derek Stepan (played on the Stutzle line) are likely not part of those long-range future plans.

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David Pastrnak with the hat trick in the outdoor game Sunday. He's only played nine games this season but already has nine goals and 14 points.

With two more points Sunday, Nick Ritchie has 12 in his last 13 games. A big part of his breakout this year is the power play. He's already tied a career high with nine PPPts and his PPTOI averages 2:58 per game, which is also a career high (by over a full minute per game). His ES numbers are lower than they should be (5on5 S% just 3.2%) but his PP numbers are high. So look for those to balance out as he slows down a little. But by and large, his breakout is legit and he will maintain his value because of his power-play usage.

Jack Studnicka got back into the lineup and, on his birthday no less, picked up a nifty assist here (fast forward to 1:25 of the clip):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU5L-0CqyDc

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James van Riemsdyk continues to put forth a career year at the young age of 31. Three more points in the outdoor game give him 21 in 15. He's, of course, way over-achieving. The puck luck stats scream regression. His career high in points-per-game average is 0.76. This year he sits at 1.40. Because it's a shortened season, he could actually get 50 points even with the slowdown. He just needs 29 in 41 – which is about what his career average pace is.

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Mark Scheifele has points in 16 of the Jets 18 games. He, Blake Wheeler and Pierre-Luc Dubois each tallied three points on Sunday. Scheifele has 26 points in 18 games and this is the fifth-straight season of averaging more than a point per game. Yet he's never mentioned when we throw around names of elite players. Is he this era's version of Adam Oates? Just a guy who will quietly put up tons of points year after year but never get taken seriously for things like Team Canada? Sure, he's on most projected rosters, but as a fourth-line center! Just like Oates 20 years ago.

Jake Virtanen's ice time dipped to a season-low 6:09 Sunday. I'm of the opinion – either play a player or don't. Stop waffling. He may as well be in the press box. Playing him fourth line with six minutes of ice time helps nobody.

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See you next Monday.